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ENGLISH  SECULARISM 


A  CONFESSION  OF  BELIEF 


GEORGE  JACOB  HOLYOAKE 


THINK 


CHICAGO 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

1896 


Copyright  by 

The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. 

1896. 


^  «b7bb^(^/ 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 


THE  OPEN  COURT,  in  which  the  series  of  articles  consti- 
tuting this  work  originally  appeared,  has  given  account  of 
many  forms  of  faith,  supplementary  or  confirmatory  of  its  own, 
and  sometimes  of  forms  of  opinions  dissimilar  where  there  ap- 
peared to  be  instruction  in  them.  It  will  be  an  advantage  to  the 
reader  should  its  editor  state  objections,  or  make  comments,  as  he 
may  deem  necessary  and  useful.  English  Secularism  is  as  little 
known  in  America  as  American  and  Canadian  Secularisation  is  un- 
derstood in  Great  Eritain.  The  new  form  of  free  thought  known 
as  English  Secularism  does  not  include  either  Theism  or  Atheism. 
Whether  Monism,  which  I  can  conceive  as  a  nobler  and  scientific 
form  of  Theism,  might  be  a  logical  addition  to  the  theory  of  Secu- 
larism, as  set  forth  in  the  following  pages,  the  editor  of  The  Open 
Court  may  be  able  to  show.  If  this  be  so,  every  open-minded 
reader  will  better  see  the  truth  by  comparison.  Contrast  is  the 
incandescent  light  of  argument. 

George  Jacob  Holyoake. 
Eastern  Lodge,  Brighton,  England, 
February,  1896. 


PUBLISHER'S  PREFACE. 


AMONG  the  representative  freethinkers  of  the  world  Mr. 
_  George  J.  Holyoake  takes  a  most  prominent  position.  He 
is  a  leader  of  leaders,  he  is  the  brain  of  the  Secularist  party  in 
England,  he  is  a  hero  and  a  martyr  of  their  cause. 

Judged  as  a  man,  Mr.  Holyoake  is  of  sterling  character ;  he 
was  not  afraid  of  prison,  nor  of  unpopularity  and  ostracism,  nor 
of  persecution  of  any  kind.  If  he  ever  feared  anything,  it  was  be- 
ing not  true  to  himself  and  committing  himself  to  something  that 
was  not  right.  He  was  an  agitator  all  his  life,  and  as  an  agitator 
he  was — whether  or  not  we  agree  with  his  views — an  ideal  man. 
He  is  the  originator  of  the  Secularist  movement  that  was  started 
in  England ;  he  invented  the  name  Secularism,  and  he  was  the 
backbone  of  the  Secularist  propaganda  ever  since  it  began.  Mr. 
Holyoake  left  his  mark  in  the  history  of  thought,  and  the  influence 
which  he  exercised  will  for  good  or  evil  remain  an  indelible  heir- 
loom of  the  future. 

Secularism  is  not  the  cause  which  The  Open  Court  Publishing 
Co.  upholds,  but  it  is  a  movement  which  on  account  of  its  impor- 
tance ought  not  to  be  overlooked.  Whatever  our  religious  views 
may  be,  we  must  reckon  with  the  conditions  that  exist,  and  Secu- 
larism is  powerful  enough  to  deserve  general  attention. 

What  is  Secularism  ? 

Secularism  espouses  the  cause  of  the  world  versus  theology: 
of  the  secular  and  temporal  versus  the  sacred  and  ecclesiastical. 
Secularism  claims  that  religion  ought  never  to  be  anything  but  a 


vi  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

private  affair ;  it  denies  the  right  of  any  kind  of  church  to  be  as- 
sociated with  the  public  life  of  a  nation,  and  proposes  to  supersede 
the  ofiBcial  influence  which  religious  institutions  still  exercise  in 
both  hemispheres. 

Rather  than  abolish  religion  or  paralyse  its  influence,  The 
Open  Court  Publishing  Co.  would  advocate  on  the  one  hand  to  let 
the  religious  spirit  pervade  the  whole  body  politic,  together  with 
all  public  institutions,  and  also  the  private  life  of  every  single  in- 
dividual ;  and  on  the  other  hand  to  carry  all  secular  interests  into 
the  church,  which  would  make  the  church  subservient  to  the  real 
needs  of  mankind. 

Thus  we  publish  Mr.  Holyoake's  Confession  of  Faith,  which  is 
an  exposition  of  Secularism,  not  because  we  are  Secularists,  which 
we  are  not,  but  because  we  believe  that  Mr.  Holyoake  is  entitled 
to  a  hearing.  Mr.  Holyoake  is  a  man  of  unusually  great  common 
sense,  of  keen  reasoning  faculty,  and  of  indubitable  sincerity. 
What  he  says  he  means,  and  what  he  believes  he  lives  up  to,  what 
he  recognises  to  be  right  he  will  do,  even  though  the  whole  world 
would  stand  up  against  him.  In  a  word,  he  is  a  man  who  accord- 
ing to  our  conception  of  religion  proves  by  his  love  of  truth  that, 
however  he  himself  may  disclaim  it,  he  is  actually  a  deeply  re- 
ligious man.  His  religious  earnestness  is  rare,  and  our  churches 
would  be  a  good  deal  better  off  if  all  the  pulpits  were  filled  with 
men  of  his  stamp. 

We  publish  Mr.  Holyoake's  Confession  of  Faith  not  for  Sec- 
ularists only,  but  also  and  especially  for  the  benefit  of  religious 
people,  of  his  adversaries,  of  his  antagonists ;  for  they  ought  to 
know  him  and  understand  him ;  they  ought  to  appreciate  his  mo- 
tives for  dissenting  from  church  views ;  and  ought  to  learn  why  so 
many  earnest  and  honest  people  are  leaving  the  church  and  will 
have  nothing  to  do  with  church  institutions. 

Why  is  it  that  Christianity  is  losing  its  hold  on  mankind  ?  Is 
it  because  the  Christian  doctrines  have  become  antiquated,  and 
does  the  church  no  longer  adapt  herself  to  the  requirements  of  the 


PUBLISHER'S  PREFACE.  vii 

present  age  ?  Is  it  that  the  representative  Christian  thinkers  are 
lacking  in  intellectuality  and  moral  strength  ?  Or  is  it  that  the 
world  at  large  has  outgrown  religion  and  refuses  to  be  gjaided  by 
the  spiritual  counsel  of  popes  and  pastors  ? 

Whatever  the  reason  may  be,  the  fact  itself  cannot  be  doubted, 
and  the  question  is  only,  What  will  become  of  religion  in  the 
future?  Will  the  future  of  mankind  be  irreligious  (as  for  in- 
stance Mr.  Lecky  and  M.  Guyau  prophesy) ;  or  will  religion  regain 
its  former  importance  and  become  again  the  leading  power  in  life, 
dominating  both  public  and  private  affairs  ? 

The  first  condition  of  a  reconciliation  between  religion  and 
the  masses  of  mankind  would  be  for  religious  men  patiently  to  lis- 
ten to  the  complaints  that  are  made  by  the  adversaries  of  Christi- 
anity, and  to  understand  the  position  which  honest  and  sensible 
freethinkers,  such  as  Mr.  Holyoake,  take.  Religious  leaders  are 
too  little  acquainted  with  the  world  at  large;  they  avoid  their 
antagonists  like  outcasts,  and  rarely,  if  ever,  try  to  comprehend 
their  arguments.  In  the  same  way,  freethinkers  as  a  rule  despise 
clergymen  as  hypocrites  who  for  the  sake  of  a  living  sell  their  souls 
and  preach  doctrines  which  they  cannot  honestly  believe.  In  or- 
der to  arrive  at  a  mutual  understanding,  it  would  be  necessary 
first  of  all  that  both  parties  should  discontinue  ostracising  one  an- 
other and  become  mutually  acquainted.  They  should  lay  aside 
for  a  while  the  weapons  with  which  they  are  wont  to  combat  one 
another  in  the  public  press  and  in  tract  literature ;  they  should 
cease  scolding  and  ridiculing  one  another  and  simply  present  their 
own  case  in  terse  terms. 

This  Mr.  Holyoake  has  done.  His  Confession  of  Faith  is  as 
concise  as  any  book  of  the  kind  can  be  ;  and  he,  being  the  origin- 
ator of  Secularism  and  its  standard-bearer,  is  the  man  who  speaks 
with  authority. 

For  the  sake  of  religion,  therefore,  and  for  promoting  the  mu- 
tual understanding  of  men  of  a  different  turn  of  mind,  we  present 
his  book  to  the  public  and  recommend  its  careful  perusal  especially 


[ 


▼ill  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

to  the  clergy,  who  will  learn  from  this  book  some  of  the  most  im- 
portant reasons  why  Christianity  has  become  unacceptable  to  a 
large  class  of  truth-loving  men,  who  alone  for  the  sake  of  truth 
find  it  best  to  stay  out  of  the  church. 

The  preface  of  a  book  is  as  a  rule  not  deemed  the  right  place 
to  criticise  an  author,  but  such  is  the  frankness  and  impartiality  of 
Mr.  Holyoake  that  he  has  kindly  permitted  the  manager  of  The 
Open  Court  Publishing  Co.  to  criticise  his  book  freely  and  to  state 
the  disagreements  that  might  obtain  between  publishers  and  author 
in  the  very  preface  of  the  book.  There  is  no  need  of  making  an 
extensive  use  of  this  permission,  as  a  few  remarks  will  be  sufficient 
to  render  clear  the  difference  between  Secularism  and  the  views  of 
The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co.,  which  we  briefly  characterise  as 
"  the  Religion  of  Science." 

Secularism  divides  life  into  what  is  secular  and  what  is  re- 
ligious, and  would  consign  all  matters  of  religion  to  the  sphere  of 
private  interests.  The  Religion  of  Science  would  not  divide  life 
into  a  secular  and  a  religious* part,  but  would  have  both  the  secu- 
lar and  the  religious  united.  It  would  carry  religion  into  all  secu- 
lar affairs  so  as  to  sanctify  and  transfigure  them ;  and  for  this  pur- 
pose it  would  make  religion  practical,  so  as  to  be  suited  to  the  var- 
ious needs  of  life ;  it  would  make  religion  scientifically  sound,  so 
as  to  be  in  agreement  with  the  best  and  most  scientific  thought  of 
the  age ;  it  would  reform  church  doctrines  and  raise  them  from 
their  dogmatic  arbitrariness  upon  the  higher  plain  of  objective 
truth. 

In  emphasising  our  differences  we  should,  however,  not  fail  to 
recognise  the  one  main  point  of  agreement,  which  is  our  belief  in 
science.  Mr.  Holyoake  would  settle  all  questions  of  doubt  by  the 
usual  method  of  scientific  investigation.  But  there  is  a  difference 
even  here,  which  is  a  different  conception  of  science.  While  sci- 
ence to  Mr.  Holyoake  is  secular,  we  insist  on  the  holiness  and  re- 
ligious significance  of  science.  If  there  is  any  revelation  of  God, 
it  is  truth;  and  what  is  science  but  truth  ascertained?     Therefore 


PUBLISHER'S  PREFACE.  ix 

we  would  advise  all  preachers  and  all  those  to  whose  charge  souls 
of  men  are  committed,  to  take  o£f  their  shoes  when  science  speaks 
to  them,  for  science  is  the  voice  of  God. 

The  statement  is  sometimes  made  by  those  who  belittle  science 
in  the  vain  hope  of  exalting  religion,  that  the  science  of  yesterday 
has  been  upset  by  the  science  of  to-day,  and  that  the  science  of  to- 
day may  again  be  upset  by  the  science  of  to-morrow.  Nothing  can 
be  more  untrue. 

Of  course,  science  must  not  be  identified  with  the  opinion 
of  scientists.  Science  is  the  systematic  statement  of  facts,  and 
not  the  theories  which  are  tentatively  proposed  to  fill  out  the  gaps 
of  our  knowledge.  What  has  once  been  proved  to  be  a  fact  has 
never  been  overthrown,  and  the  actual  stock  of  science  has  grown 
slowly  but  surely.  The  discovery  of  new  facts  or  the  proposition 
of  a  new  and  reliable  hypothesis  has  often  shown  the  old  facts  of 
science  in  a  new  light,  but  it  has  never  upset  or  disproved  them. 
There  are  fashions  in  the  opinions  of  scientists,  but  science  itself 
is  above  fashion,  above  change,  above  human  opinion.  Science 
partakes  of  that  stern  immutability,  it  is  endowed  with  that  eter- 
nality  and  that  omnipresent  universality  which  have  since  olden 
times  been  regarded  as  the  main  attribute  of  Godhood. 

There  appears  in  all  religions,  at  a  certain  stage  of  the  religious 
development,  a  party  of  dogmatists.  They  are  people  who,  in  their 
zeal,  insist  on  the  exclusiveness  of  their  own  religion,  as  if  truth 
were  a  commodity  which,  if  possessed  by  one,  cannot  be  possessed 
by  anybody  else.  They  know  little  of  the  spirit  that  quickens,  but 
believe  blindly  in  the  letter  of  the  dogma.  It  is  not  faith  in  their 
opinion  that  saves,  but  the  blindness  of  faith.  They  interpret 
Christ's  words  and  declare  that  he  who  has  another  interpretation 
must  be  condemned. 

The  dogmatic  phase  in  the  development  of  religion  is  as  natu- 
ral as  boyhood  in  a  human  life  and  as  immaturity  in  the  growth  of 
fruit ;  it  is  natural  and  necessary,  but  it  is  a  phase  only  which  will 
pass  as  inevitably  by  as  boyhood  changes  into  manhood,  and  as 


X  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

the  prescientific  stage  in  the  evolution  of  civilisation  gives  way  to 
a  better  and  deeper  knowledge  of  nature. 

The  dogmatist  is  in  the  habit  of  identifying  his  dogmatism  with 
religion  ;  and  that  is  the  reason  why  his  definitions  of  religion  and 
morality  will  unfailingly  come  in  conflict  with  the  common  sense 
of  the  people.  The  dogmatist  makes  religion  exclusive.  In  the  at- 
tempt of  exalting  religion  he  relegates  it  to  supernatural  spheres, 
thus  excluding  it  from  the  world  and  creating  a  contrast  between 
the  sacred  and  the  profane,  between  the  divine  and  the  secular, 
between  religion  and  life.  Thus  it  happens  that  religion  becomes 
something  beyond,  something  extraneous,  something  foreign  to 
man's  sphere  of  being.  And  yet  religion  has  developed  for  the 
sake  of  sanctifying  the  daily  walks  of  man,  of  making  the  secular 
sacred,  of  filling  life  with  meaning  and  consecrating  even  the  most 
trivial  duties  of  existence. 

Secularism  is  the  reaction  against  dogmatism,  but  secularism 
still  accepts  the  views  of  the  dogmatist  on  religion  ;  for  it  is  upon 
the  dogmatist's  valuations  and  definitions  that  the  secularist  rejects 
religion  as  worthless. 


The  religious,  movement,  of  which  The  Open  Court  Publish- 
ing Co.  is  an  exponent,  represents  one  further  step  in  the  evolution 
of  religious  aspirations.  As  alchemy  develops  into  chemistry,  and 
astrology  into  astronomy,  as  blind  faith  changes  into  seeing  face  to 
face,  as  belief  changes  into  knowledge,  so  the  religion  of  miracles, 
the  religion  of  a  salvation  by  magic,  the  religion  of  the  dogmatist, 
ripens  into  the  religion  of  pure  and  ascertainable  truth.  The  old 
dogmas,  which  in  their  literal  acceptance  appear  as  nonsensical 
errors,  are  now  recognised  as  allegories  which  symbolise  deeper 
truths,  and  the  old  ideals  are  preserved  not  with  less,  but  with 
more,  significance  than  before. 

God  is  not  smaller  but  greater  since  we  know  more  about 
Him,  as  to  what  He  is  and  what  He  is  not,  just  as  the  universe  is 


c 


C 


PUBLISHER'S  PREFACE.  xi 

not  smaller  but  larger  since  Copernicus  and  Kepler  opened  our 
eyes  and  showed  us  what  the  relation  of  our  earth  in  the  solar  sys- 
tem is  and  what  it  is  not. 

Secularism  is  one  of  the  signs  of  the  times.  It  represents  the 
unbelief  in  a  religious  alchemy  ;  but  its  antagonism  to  the  religion 
of  dogmatism  does  not  bode  destruction  but  advance.  It  repre- 
sents the  transition  to  a  purer  conception  of  religion.  It  has  not 
the  power  to  abolish  the  church,  but  only  indicates  the  need  of  its 
reformation. 

It  is  this  reformation  of  religion  and  of  religious  institutions 
which  is  the  sole  aim  of  all  the  publications  of  The  Open  Court 
Publishing  Co.,  and  we  see  in  Secularism  one  of  those  agencies 
that  are  at  work  preparing  the  way  for  a  higher  and  nobler  com- 
prehension of  the  truth. 

Mr.  Holyoake's  aspirations,  in  our  opinion,  go  beyond  the 
aims  which  he  himself  points  out,  and  thus  his  Confession  of  Faith, 
although  nominally  purely  secular,  will  finally,  even  by  church- 
men, be  recognised  in  its  religious  importance.  It  will  help  to 
purify  the  confession  of  faith  of  the  dogmatist. 

In  offering  Mr..  Holyoake's  best  and  maturest  thoughts  to  the 
public,  we  hope  that  both  the  secularists  and  the  believers  in  reli- 
gion will  by  and  by  learn  to  understand  that  Secularism  as  much 
as  dogmatism  is  a  phase — both  are  natural  and  necessary  phases — 
in  the  religious  evolution  of  mankind.  There  is  no  use  in  scolding 
either  the  dogmatist  or  the  secularist,  or  in  denouncing  the  one  on 
account  of  his  credulity  and  superstition,  and  the  other  on  account 
of  his  dissent ;  but  there  is  a  use  in — nay,  there  is  need  of — un- 
derstanding the  aspirations  of  both. 

There  is  a  need  of  mutual  exchange  of  thought  on  the  basis  of 
mutual  esteem  and  good-will.  Above  all,  there  is  a  need  of  open- 
ing the  church  doors  to  the  secularist. 

The  church,  if  it  has  any  right  of  existence  at  all,  is  for  the 
,  world,  and  not  for  believers  alone.  Church  members  can  learn 
from  the  secularist  many  things  which  many  believers  seem  to  have 


c 


xii  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

forgotten,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  they  can  teach  the  unbeliever 
what  be  has  overlooked  in  bis  sincere  attempts  at  finding  the  truth, 
May  Mr.  Holyoake's  confession  of  faith  be  received  in  the 
spirit  in  which  the  author  wrote  it,  which  is  a  candid  love  of  truth, 
and  also  in  the  spirit  in  which  the  publishers  undertook  its  publi- 
cation, with  the  irenic  endeavor  of  letting  every  honest  aspiration 
be  rightly  understood  and  rightly  valued. 

Paul  Carus, 
Manager  of  The  Open  Court  Publishing  Co. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPIEK  PAGE 

I.  Open  Thought  the  First  Step  to  Intelligence      ...       i 
II.  The  Question  Stated 5 

III,  The  First  Stage  of  Free  Thought :  Its  Nature  and 

Limitation 9 

IV.  The  Second  Stage  of  Free  Thought :  Enterprise    .     .     17 
V.  Conquests  of  Investigation 22 

VI.  Stationariness  of  Criticism 28 

VII.  Third  Stage  of  Free  Thought :  Secularism    ....  34 

VIII.  Three  Principles  Vindicated 38 

IX.  How  Secularism  Arose 45 

X.  How  Secularism  was  Diffused 50 

XI.  Secular  Instruction  Distinct  from  Secularism    ...  56 

XII.  The  Distinctiveness  Made  Further  Evident  ....  60 

XIII.  Self-Defensive  for  the  People 66 

XIV.  Rejected  Tenets  Replaced  by  Better 71 

XV.  Morality  Independent  of  Theology 76 

XVI.  Ethical  Certitude .  84 

XVII.  The  Ethical  Method  of  Controversy go 

XVIII.  Its  Discrimination 95 

XIX.  Apart  from  Christianism 100 

XX.  Secularism  Creates  a  New  Responsibility      ....  106 

XXI.  Through  Opposition  to  Recognition 112 

XXII.  Self-Extending  Principles 118 

Secularist  Ceremonies 126 

On  Marriage 127 

Naming  Children 128 

Over  the  Dead  :  Reading  at  a  Grave.     At  the  Grave  of  a 
Child.     On  Men  or  Women.     On  a  Career  of  Public 

Usefulness 131 


CHAPTER  I. 


OPEN  THOUGHT  THE  FIRST  STEP  TO  INTELLI- 
GENCE. 

"  It  is  not  prudent  to  be  in  the  right  too 
soon,  nor  to  be  in  the  right  against  everybody 
else.  And  yet  it  sometimes  happens  that  after 
a  certain  lapse  of  time,  greater  or  lesser,  you 
will  find  that  one  of  those  truths  which  you  had 
kept  to  yourself  as  premature,  but  which  has 
got  abroad  in  spite  of  your  teeth,  has  become 
the  most  commonplace  thing  imaginable. 

— Alphonse  Karr. 

ONE  purpose  of  these  chapters  is  to  explain  how 
unfounded  are  the  objections  of  many  excellent 
Christians  to  Secular  instruction  in  State,  public,  or 
board  schools.  The  Secular  is  distinct  from  theology, 
which  it  neither  ignores,  assails,  nor  denies.  Things 
Secular  are  as  separate  from  the  Church  as  land  from 
the  ocean.  And  what  nobody  seems  to  discern  is  that 
things  Secular  are  in  themselves  quite  distinct  from 
Secularism.  The  Secular  is  a  mode  of  instruction ; 
Secularism  is  a  code  of  conduct.  Secularism  does  con- 
flict with  theology  ;  Secularist  teaching  would,  but 
Secular  instruction  does  not. 

Persuaded  as  I  am  that  lack  of  consideration  for 
the  convictions  of  the  reader  creates  an  impediment 


2  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

in  the  way  of  his  agreement  with  the  writer,  and  even 
disinclines  him  to  examine  what  is  put  before  him ; 
yet  some  of  these  pages  may  be  open  to  this  objec- 
tion. If  so,  it  is  owing  to  want  of  thought  or  want  of 
art  in  statement,  and  is  no  part  of  the  intention  of  the 
author. 

He  would  have  diffidence  in  expressing,  as  he  does 
in  these  pages,  his  dissent  from  the  opinions  of  many 
Christian  advocates — for  whose  character  and  convic- 
tions he  has  great  respect,  and  for  some  even  affec- 
tion— did  he  not  perceive  that  few  have  any  diffidence 
or  reservation  (save  in  one  or  two  exalted  instances^) 
in  maintaining  their  views  and  dissenting  from  his. 

Open  thought,  which  in  this  chapter  is  brought 
under  the  reader's  notice  is  sometimes  called  "self- 
thought,"  or  "free  thought,"  or  "original  thought" — 
the  opposite  of  conventional  second-hand  thought — 
which  is  all  that  the  custom-ridden  mass  of  mankind 
is  addicted  to. 

Open  thought  has  three  stages  : 

The  first  stage  is  that  in  which  the  right  to  think 
independently  is  insisted  on ;  and  the  free  action  of 
opinion — so  formed — is  maintained.  Conscious  power 
thus  acquired  satisfies  the  pride  of  some  ;  others  limit 
its  exercise  from  prudence.  Interests,  which  would 
be  jeopardised  by  applying  independent  thought  to 
received  opinion,  keep  more  persons  silent,  and  thus 
many  never  pass  from  this  stage. 

lOf  whom  the  greatest  is  Mr.  Gladstone. 


OFEN  THOUGHT.  3 

The  second  stage  is  that  in  which  the  right  of  self- 
thought  is  applied  to  the  criticism  of  theology,  with  a 
view  to  clear  the  way  for  life  according  to  reason. 
This  is  not  the  work  of  a  day  or  year,  but  is  so  pro- 
longed that  clearing  the  way  becomes  as  it  were  a  pro- 
fession, and  is  at  length  pursued  as  an  end  instead  of 
a  means.  Disputation  becomes  a  passion  and  the 
higher  state  of  life,  of  which  criticism  is  the  necessary 
precursor,  is  lost  sight  of,  and  many  remain  at  this 
stage  when  it  is  reached  and  go  no  further. 

The  third  stage  is  that  where  ethical  motives  of 
conduct  apart  from  Christianity  are  vindicated  for  the 
guidance  of  those  who  are  indifferent  about  theology, 
or  who  reject  it  altogether.  Supplying  to  such  persons 
Secular  reasons  for  duty  is  Secularism,  the  range  of 
which  is  illimitable.  It  begins  where  free  thought 
usually  ends,  and  constitutes  a  new  form  of  construc- 
tive thought,  the  principles  and  policy  of  which  are 
quite  different  from  those  acted  upon  in  the  preceding 
stages.  Controversy  concerns  itself  with  what  is  \  Sec- 
ularism with  what  ought  to  be. 

It  is  pertinent  here  to  say  that  Christianity  does 
not  permit  eclecticism — that  is,  it  does  not  tolerate 
others  selecting  portions  of  Christian  Scriptures  pos- 
sessing the  mark  of  intrinsic  truth,  to  which  many 
could  cheerfully  conform  in  their  lives.  This  rule 
compels  all  who  cannot  accept  the  entire  Scriptures 
to  deal  with  its  teachings  as  they  find  them  expressed, 
and-  for  which  Christianity  makes  itself  responsible. 


4  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

All  the  while  it  is  quite  evident  that  Christians  do 
permit  eclecticism  among  themselves.  The  great  Con- 
gress of  the  Free  Churches,  recently  held  in  Notting- 
ham, representing  the  personal  and  vital  form  of 
Christianity,  had  a  humanness  and  tolerance  unmani- 
fested  by  Christianity  before,  showing  that  humanity 
is  stronger  than  historical  integrity.  If  any  one,  there- 
fore, should  draw  up,  as  might  be  done,  a  theory  of 
Christianity  solely  from  such  doctrines  as  are  repre- 
sented in  the  elliptical  preaching,  practice,  and  social 
life  of  Christians  of  to-day,  a  very  different  estimate 
of  the  Christian  system  would  have  to  be  given  from 
that  with  which  the  author  deals  in  the  subsequent 
chapters.  In  them  Christianity  is  represented  as  Free- 
thought  has  found  it,  and  as  it  exists  in  the  Scriptures, 
in  the  law,  in  the  pulpit,  and  in  the  school,  which  con- 
stitute its  total  force  in  the  respects  in  which  it  re- 
presses and  discourages  independent  thought.  Sci- 
ence, truth,  and  criticism  have  engrafted  themselves 
on  historic  Christianity.  It  has  now  new  articles  of 
belief.  When  it  avows  them  it  will  win  larger  con- 
currence and  respect  than  it  can  now  command.  . 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE  QUESTION  STATED.    - 

"Look  forward — not  backward; 
Look  up — not  down ; 
Look  around  : 
Lend  a  hand."  1 

— Edward  Everett  Hale,  D.  D. 

Where  a  monarchy  is  master,  inquiry  is  apt  to  be 
a  disturbing  element ;  and  though  exercised  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  commonwealth  it  is  none  the  less  re- 
sented. Where  the  priest  is  master  inquiry  is  sharply 
prohibited.  The  priest  represents  a  spiritual  monarchy 
in  which  the  tenets  of  belief  are  fixed,  assumed  to  be 
infallible,  and  to  be  prescribed  by  deity.  Thus  the 
priest  regards  inquiry  as  proceeding  from  an  imperti- 
nent distrust,  to  which  he  is  not  reconciled  on  being 
assured  that  it  is  undertaken  in  the  interest  of  truth. 
Thus  the  king  denounces  inquiry  as  sedition,  and  the 
priest  as  sin.  In  the  end  the  inquirer  finds  himself  an 
alien  in  State  and  Church,  and  laws  are  made  against 
his  life,  his  liberty,  property,  and  veracity.* 

IDr.  Hale  did  not  popularise  these  energetic  maxims  of  earnestness  in 
the  connexion  in  which  they  are  here  used;  but  their  wisdom  is  of  general 
application. 

S  When  martyrdoms  and  imprisonments  ceased,  disabling  laws  remained 
which'imposed  the  Christian  oath  on  all  who  appealed  to  the  courts,  and  any 


6  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

Thus  from  the  time  when  monarch  and  priest  first 
set  up  their  pretensions  in  the  world,  the  inquiring 
mind  has  had  small  encouragement.  When  Protes- 
tantism came  it  merely  conceded  inquiry  under  direc- 
tion, and  only  so  far  as  it  tended  to  confirm  its  own 
anti-papal  tenets.  But  when  inquiry  claimed  to  be 
independent,  unfettered,  uncontrolled, — in  fact  to  be 
free  inquiry, — then  Papist,  Lutheran,  and  Dissenter, 
alike  regarded  it  as  dangerous,  and  stigmatised  it  by 
every  term  calculated  to  deter  or  dissuade  people 
from  it. 

But  though  this  combined  defamation  of  inquiry 
set  many  against  it,  it  did  not  intimidate  men  entirely. 
There  arose  independent  thinkers  who  held  that  un- 
fettered investigation  was  the  discoverer  of  truth  and 
dangerous  to  error  only,  and  that  the  freer  it  was  the 
more  effective  it  must  be. 

Still  timorous-minded  persons  remained  suspicious 
of  free  thought.  At  its  best  they  found  it  involved 
conflict  with  false  opinion,  and  conflict,  to  those  with- 
out aspiration  or  conscience,  is  disquieting  ;  and  where 
impartial  investigation  interfered  with  personal  inter- 
ests it  was  opposed.  No  one  could  enter  on  the  search 
for  truth  without  finding  his  path  obstructed  by  theo- 
logical errors  and  interdictions.  Having  taken  the  side 
of  truth,  all  who  were  loyal  to  it,  were  bound  like  Bun- 
yan's  Pilgrim  to  withstand  the  Apollyons  who  opposed 

who  h«d  the  pride  of  veracity  and  declined  so  to  swear,  were  denied  protec- 
tion for  property,  or  credence  of  their  word. 


THE  QUESTION  STATED.  7 

it,  and  a  combat  began  which  lasted  for  centuries,  and 
is  not  yet  ended.  But  though  theology  was  always  in 
power,  men  of  courage  at  length  established  the  right 
of  free  inquiry,  and  established  also  a  free  press  for 
the  publication  of  the  results  arrived  at.  These  rights 
were  so  indispensable  for  progress  and  were  so  long 
resisted,  that  generations  fought  for  them  as  ends  in 
themselves.  Thus  there  grew  up,  as  in  military  affairs, 
a  class  whose  profession  was  destruction,  and  free 
thinkers  came  to  be  regarded  as  negationists.  When 
I  came  into  the  field  the  combat  was  raging.  Richard 
Carlile  had  not  long  been  liberated  from  successive 
imprisonments  of  more  than  nine  years  duration  in  all. 
Charles  Southwell  was  in  Bristol  gaol.  Before  his 
sentence  had  half  expired  I  was  in  Gloucester  gaol. 
George  Adams  was  there  ;  Mrs.  Harriet  Adams  was 
committed  for  trial  from  Cheltenham.  Matilda  Roalfe, 
Thomas  Finlay,  Thomas  Paterson,  and  others  were 
incarcerated  in  Scotland.  Robert  Buchanan  and  Lloyd 
Jones,  two  social  missionaries — colleagues  of  my  own 
— only  escaped  imprisonment  by  swearing  they  be- 
lieved what  they  did  not  believe, — an  act  I  refused  to 
imitate,  and  no  mean  inconvenience  has  resulted  to 
me  from  it.  I  took  part  in  the  vindication  of  the  free 
publicity  of  opinion  until  it  was  practically  conceded. 
At  the  time  when  I  was  arrested  in  1842,  the  Chel- 
tenham magistrates  who  were  angered  at  defiant  re- 
marks I  made,  had  the  power  (and  used  it)  of  com- 
mitting me  to  the  Quarter  Sessions  as  a  "felon,"  where 


8  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

the  same  justices  could  resent,  by  penalties,  what  I  had 
said  to  them.  On  representations  I  made  to  Parlia- 
ment— through  my  friend  John  Arthur  Roebuck  and 
others — Sir  James  Graham  caused  a  Bill  to  be  passed 
which  removed  trials  for  opinion  to  the  Assizes.  I 
was  the  first  person  tried  under  this  act.  Thus  for  the 
first  time  heresy  was  ensured  a  dispassionate  trial  and 
was  no  longer  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  local  preju- 
dice and  personal  magisterial  resentment. 

When  overt  acts  of  outrage  were  no  longer  pos- 
sible against  the  adherents  of  free  thought.  Christians, 
some  from  fairness,  and  others  from  necessity,  began 
to  reason  with  them  and  asked:  "Now  you  have 
established  your  claim  to  be  heard.  What  have  you 
to  say?"  The  reply  I  proposed  was :  "Secularism — 
a  form  of  opinion  relating  to  the  duty  of  this  life  which 
substituted  the  piety  of  useful  men  for  the  usefulness 
of  piety." 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE  FIRST  STAGE  OF  FREE  THOUGHT :  ITS  NATURE 
AND  LIMITATION. 

"He  who  cannot  reason  is  defenceless; 
he  who  fears  to  reason  has  a  coward  mind;  he 
who  will  not  reason  is  willing  to  be  deceived 
and  will  deceive  all  who  listen  to  him. 

— Maxim  of  Free  Thought. 

FREE  THOUGHT  is  founded  upon  reason.  It  is 
the  exercise  of  reason,  without  which  free  thought 
is  free  foolishness.  Free  thought  being  the  precursor 
of  Secularism,  it  is  necessary  first  to  describe  its  prin- 
ciples and  their  limitation.  Free  thought  means  inde- 
pendent self-thinking.  Some  say  all  thought  is  free 
since  a  man  can  think  what  he  pleases  and  no  one  can 
prevent  him,  which  is  not  true.  Unfortunately  think- 
ing can  be  prevented  by  subtle  spiritual  intimidation, 
in  earlier  and  even  in  later  life. 

When  a  police  agent  found  young  Mazzini  in  the 
fields  of  Genoa,  apparently  meditating,  his  father's  at 
tention  was  called  to  the  youth.  His  father  was  told 
that  the  Austrian  Government  did  not  permit  thinking. 
The  Inquisition  intimidated  nations  from  thinking. 
The  priests  by  preventing  instruction  and  prohibiting 


lo  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

books,  limited  thinking.  Archbishop  Whately  shows 
that  no  one  can  reason  without  words,  and  since  speech 
can  be,  and  is,  disallowed  and  made  penal,  the  high- 
way of  thought  can  be  closed.  No  one  can  think  to 
any  purpose  without  inquiry  concerning  his  subject, 
and  inquiry  can  be  made  impossible.  It  is  of  little 
use  that  any  one  thinks  who  cannot  verify  his  ideas  by 
comparison  with  those  of  his  compeers.  To  prevent 
this  is  to  discourage  thought.  In  fact  thousands  are 
prevented  thinking  by  denying  them  the  means  and 
the  facilities  of  thinking. 

Free  thought  means  fearless  thought.  It  is  not 
deterred  by  legal  penalties,  nor  by  spiritual  conse- 
quences. Dissent  from  the  Bible  does  not  alarm  the 
true  investigator,  who  takes  truth  for  authority  not  au- 
thority for  truth.  The  thinker  who  is  really  free,  is 
independent ;  he  is  under  no  dread  ;  he  yields  to  no 
menace ;  he  is  not  dismayed  by  law,  nor  custom,  nor 
pulpits,  nor  society — whose  opinion  appals  so  many. 
He  who  has  the  manly  passion  of  free  thought,  has 
no  fear  of  anything,  save  the  fear  of  error. 

Fearlessness  is  the  essential  condition  of  effective 
thought.  If  Satan  sits  at  the  top  of  the  Bible  with 
perdition  open  underneath  it,  into  which  its  readers 
will  be  pushed  who  may  doubt  what  they  find  in  its 
pages,  the  right  of  private  judgment  is  a  snare.  A 
man  is  a  fool  who  inquires  at  this  risk.  He  had  better 
accept  at  once  the  superstition  of  the  first  priest  he 


FIRST  STAGE  OF  FREE  THOUGHT.  \\ 

meets.  It  is  not  conceivable  how  a  Christian  can  be 
z.free  thinker. 

He  who  is  afraid  to  know  both  sides  of  a  question 
cannot  think  upon  it.  Christians  do  not,  as  a  rule, 
want  to  know  what  can  be  said  against  their  views, 
and  they  keep  out  of  libraries  all  books  which  would 
inform  others.  Thus  such  Christians  cannot  think 
freely,  and  are  against  others  doing  it.  Doubt  comes 
of  thinking  ;  the  Christian  commonly  regards  doubt  as 
sin.  How  can  he  be  a  free  thinker  who  thinks  thinking 
is  a  sin  ? 

Free  thought  implies  three  things  as  conditions  of 
truth  : 

1.  Free  inquiry,  which  is  the  pathway  to  truth. 

2.  Free  publicity  to  the  ideas  acquired,  in  order  to 
learn  whether  they  are  useful — which  is  the  encourage- 
ment of  truth. 

3.  The  free  discussion  of  convictions  without  which 
it  is  not  possible  to  know  whether  they  are  true  or 
false,  which  is  the^verification  of  truth. 

A  man  is  not  a  man  unless  he  is  a  thinker ;  he  is  a 
fool  having  no  ideas  of  his  own.  If  he  happens  to  live 
among  men  who  do  think,  he  browses  like  an  animal  on 
their  ideas.  He  is  a  sort  of  kept  man  being  supported 
by  the  thoughts  of  others.  He  is  what  in  England  is 
called  a  pauper,  who  subsists  upon  "outdoor  relief," 
allowed  him  by  men  of  intellect. 

Without  the  right  of  publicity,  individual  thought, 
however  praiseworthy  and  however  perfect,  would  be 


xa  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

barren  to  the  community.  Algernon  Sidney  said : 
"The  best  legacy  I  can  leave  my  children  is  free 
speech  and  the  example  of  using  it.*' 

The  clergy  of  every  denomination  are  unfriendly  to 
its  use.  The  soldiers  of  the  cross  do  not  fight  adver- 
saries in  the  open.  Mr.  Gladstone  alone  among  emi- 
nent men  of  piety  has  insisted  upon  the  duty  of  the 
Church  to  prove  its  claims  in  discussion.  In  his  In- 
troduction to  his  address  at  the  Liverpool  College 
(1872  or  1873)  he  said:  "I  wish  to  place  on  record 
my  conviction  that  belief  cannot  now  be  defended  by 
reticence  any  more  than  by  railing,  or  by  any  privi- 
leges or  assumption."  Since  the  day  of  Milton  there 
has  been  no  greater  authority  on  the  religious  wisdom 
of  debate. 

Thought,  even  theological,  is  often  useless,  ill-in- 
formed, foolish,  mischievous,  or  even  wicked ;  and  he 
alone  who  submits  it  to  free  criticism  gives  guarantees 
that  he  means  well,  and  is  self-convinced.  By  criti- 
cism alone  comes  exposure,  correction,  or  confirma- 
tion. The  right  of  criticism  is  the  sole  protection  of 
the  community  against  error  of  custom,  ignorance, 
prejudice,  or  incompetence.  It  is  not  until  a  proposi- 
tion has  been  generally  accepted  after  open  and  fair 
examination,  that  it  can  be  considered  as  established 
and  can  safely  be  made  a  ground  of  action  or  belief.  ^ 

These  are  the  implementary  rights  of  thought.  They 
are  what  grammar  is  to  the  writer,  which  teaches  him 

ISc*  Formation  of  Opinions,  by  Samael  Bailty. 


FIRST  STAGE  OF  FREE  THOUGHT.  13 

how  to  express  himself,  but  not  what  to  say.  These 
rights  are  as  the  rules  of  navigation  to  the  mariner. 
They  teach  him  how  to  steer  a  ship  but  do  not  instruct 
him  where  to  steer  to. 

The  full  exercise  of  these  rights  of  mental  freedom 
is  what  training  in  the  principles  of  jurisprudence  is  to 
the  pleader,  but  it  does  not  provide  him  with  a  brief. 
It  is  conceivable  that  a  man  may  come  to  be  a  master 
of  independent  thinking  and  never  put  his  powers  to 
use ;  just  as  a  man  may  know  every  rule  of  grammar 
and  yet  never  write  a  book.  In  the  same  way  a  man 
may  pass  an  examination  in  the  art  of  navigation  and 
never  take  command  of  a  vessel;  or  he  may  qualify  for 
a  Barrister,  be  called  to  the  Bar  and  never  plead  in  any 
court.  We  know  from  experience  that  many  persons 
join  in  the  combat  for  the  right  of  intellectual  freedom 
for  its  own  sake,  without  intending  or  caring  to  use 
the  right  when  won.  Some  are  generous  enough  to 
claim  and  contend  for  these  rights  from  the  belief  that 
they  may  be  useful  to  others.  This  is  the  first  stage 
of  free  thought,  and,  as  has  been  said,  many  never 
pass  beyond  it. 

Independent  thinking  is  concerned  primarily  with 
removing  obstacles  to  its  own  action,  and  in  contests 
for  liberty  of  speech  by  tongue  and  pen.  The  free 
mind  fights  mainly  for  its  own  freedom.  It  may  be- 
gin in  curiosity  and  may  end  in  intellectual  pride— 
unless  conscience  takes  care  of  it.     Its  nature  is  icon- 


14  ENGLISH  SECULARISM, 

oclastic  and  it  may  exist  without  ideas  of  reconstruc- 
tion. 

Though  a  man  goes  no  further,  he  is  a  better  man 
than  he  who  never  went  as  far.  He  has  acquired  a 
new  power,  and  is  sure  of  his  own  mind.  Just  as  one 
who  has  learned  to  fence,  or  to  shoot,  has  a  confidence 
in  encountering  an  adversary,  which  is  seldom  felt  by 
one  who  never  had  a  sword  in  hand,  or  practised  at  a 
target.  The  sea  is  an  element  of  recreation  to  one  who 
has  learned  to  swim  ;  it  is  an  element  of  death  to  one 
ignorant  of  the  art.  Besides,  the  thinker  has  attained  a 
courage  and  confidence  unknown  to  the  man  of  ortho- 
dox mind.  Since  God  (we  are  assured)  is  the  God  of 
truth,  the  honest  searcher  after  truth  has  God  on  his 
side,  and  has  no  dread  of  the  King  of  Perdition — the 
terror  of  all  Christian  people — since  the  business  of 
Satan  is  with  those  who  are  content  with  false  ideas  ; 
not  with  those  who  seek  the  true.  If  it  be  a  duty  to  seek 
the  truth  and  to  live  the  truth,  honest  discussion,  which 
discerns  it,  identifies  it,  clears  it,  and  establishes  it,  is 
a  form  of  worship  of  real  honor  to  God  and  of  true 
service  to  man.  If  the  clergyman's  speech  on  behalf 
of  God  is  rendered  exact  by  criticism,  the  criticism  is 
a  tribute,  and  no  mean  tribute  to  heaven.  Thus  the 
free  exercise  of  the  rights  of  thought  involve  no  risk 
hereafter. 

Moreover,  so  far  as  a  man  thinks  he  gains.  Thought 
implies  enterprise  and  exertion  of  mind,  and  the  re- 
sult is  wealth  of  understanding,  to  be  acquired  in  no 


FIRST  STAGE  OF  FREE  THOUGHT.  15 

Other  way.  This  intellectual  property  like  other  prop- 
erty, has  its  rights  and  duties.  The  thinker's  right  is 
to  be  left  in  undisturbed  possession  of  what  he  has 
earned  ;  and  his  duty  is  to  share  his  discoveries  of 
truth  with  mankind,  to  whom  he  owes  his  opportuni- 
ties of  acquiring  it. 

Free  expression  involves  consideration  for  others, 
on  principle.  Democracy  without  personal  deference 
becomes  a  nuisance ;  so  free  speech  without  courtesy 
is  repulsive,  as  free  publicity  would  be,  if  not  mainly 
limited  to  reasoned  truth.  Otherwise  every  blatant 
impulse  would  have  the  same  right  of  utterance  as 
verified  ideas.  Even  truth  can  only  claim  priority  of 
utterance,  when  its  utility  is  manifest.  As  the  number 
and  length  of  hairs  on  a  man's  head  is  less  important 
to  know,  than  the  number  and  quality  of  the  ideas  in 
his  brain. 

True  free  thought  requires  special  qualities  to  in- 
sure itself  acceptance.  It  must  be  owned  that  the 
thinker  is  a  disturber.  He  is  a  truth-hunter,  and  there 
is  no  telling  what  he  will  find.  Truth  is  an  exile  which 
has  been  kept  out  of  her  kingdom,  and  Error  is  a 
usurper  in  possession  of  it ;  and  the  moment  Truth 
comes  into  her  right.  Error  has  to  give  up  its  occu- 
pancy of  her  territory  ;  and  as  everybody  consciously, 
or  unconsciously  harbors  some  of  the  emissaries  of  the 
usurper,  they  do  not  like  owning  the  fact,  and  they 
dispute  the  warrant  of  truth  to  search  their  premises, 


i6  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

though  to  be  relieved  of  such  deceitful  and  costly  in- 
mates would  be  an  advantage  to  them. 

An  inalienable  attribute  of  free  thought,  which  no 
theology  possesses,  is  absolute  toleration  of  all  ideas 
put  forward  in  the  interests  of  public  truth,  and  sub- 
mitted to  public  discussion.  The  true  free  thinker  is 
in  favor  of  the  free  action  of  all  opinion  which  injures 
no  one  else,  and  of  putting  the  best  construction  he 
can  on  the  acts  of  others,  not  only  because  he  has 
thereby  less  to  tolerate,  but  from  perceiving  that  he 
who  lacks  tolerance  towards  the  ideas  of  others  has  no 
claim  for  the  tolerance  of  his  own.  The  defender  of 
toleration  must  himself  be  tolerant.  Condemning  the 
coercion  of  ideas,  he  is  pledged  to  combat  error  only  by 
reason.  Vindictiveness  towards  the  erring  is  not  only 
inconsistency,  it  is  persecution.  Thus  free  thought  is 
not  only  self-defence  against  error  but,  by  the  tolera- 
tion it  imposes,  is  itself  security  for  respectfulness  in 
controversy. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  SECOND  STAGE  OF  FREE  THOUGHT  :   ENTER- 
PRISE. 

"Better  wild  ideas  than  no  ideas  at  all." 
—Profettor  Nichol  at  Horshatn. 

'T^HE  emancipation  of  the  understanding  from  in- 
-^  timidation  and  penal  restraint  soon  incited  think- 
ers of  enterprise  to  put  their  new  powers  to  use.  The- 
ology being  especially  a  forbidden  subject  and  the 
greatest  repressive  force,  inquiry  into  its  pretensions 
first  attracted  critical  attention. 

In  every  century  forlorn  hopes  of  truth  had  set  out 
to  storm  one  or  other  of  the  ramparts  of  theology. 
Forces  had  been  marshalled  by  great  leaders  and  bat- 
tle often  given  in  the  open  field ;  and  unforeseen  vic- 
tories are  recorded,  in  the  annals  of  the  wars  of  infan- 
tine rationalism,  against  the  full-grown  powers  of  su- 
perstition and  darkness.  In  every  age  valiant  thinkers, 
scholars,  philosophers,  and  critics,  even  priests  in  de- 
fiance of  power,  ecclesiastical  and  civil,  have,  at  their 
own  peril,  explored  the  regions  of  forbidden  truth. 

In  Great  Britain  it  was  the  courage  of  insurgent 
thinkers  among  the  working  class — whom  no  imprison 


i8  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

ment  could  intimidate — who  caused  the  right  of  free 
speech  and  free  publicity  to  be  finally  conceded.  Thus 
rulers  came  round  to  the  conclusion  of  Caballero,  that 
"tolerance  is  as  necessary  in  ideas  as  in  social  rela- 
tions." 

As  soon  as  opinion  was  known  to  be  emancipated, 
men  began  to  think  who  never  thought  before.  The 
thinker  no  longer  had  to  obtain  a  "Ticket  of  Leave  " 
from  the  Churches  before  he  could  inquire ;  he  was 
free  to  investigate  where  he  would  and  what  he  would. 
Power  is,  as  a  rule,  never  imparted  nor  acquired  in 
vain,  and  honest  men  felt  they  owed  it  to  those  who 
had  won  freedom  for  them,  that  they  should  extend 
it.  Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  independence  was  an 
inspiration  to  action  in  men  of  intrepid  minds.  Pro- 
fessor Tyndall  in  the  last  words  he  wrote  for  publica- 
tion said,  "  I  choose  the  nobler  part  of  Emerson  when, 
after  various  disenchantments,  he  exclaims,  '  I  covet 
truth  !' "  On  printing  these  words  the  Wesiminsier 
Gazette  added  :  "The  gladness  of  true  heroism  visits 
the  heart  of  him  who  is  really  competent  to  say  this." 
The  energies  of  intellectual  intrepidity  had  doubtless 
been  devoted  to  science  and  social  progress  ;  but  as 
philosophers  have  found,  down  to  Huxley's  day,  all 
exploration  was  impossible  in  that  direction.  Murchi- 
son,  Brewster,  Buckland,  and  other  pioneers  of  science 
were  intimidated.  Lyell  held  back  his  book,  on  the 
Antiquity  of  Man,  twenty  years.  Tyndall,  Huxley, 
and  Spencer  were  waiting  to  be  heard.     As  Huxley 


SECOND  STAGE  OF  FREE  THOUGHT.  19 

has  justly  said  :  "there  was  no  Thoroughfare  into  the 
Kingdom  of  Nature — By  Order — Moses."  Hence,  to 
examine  theology,  to  discover  whether  its  authority 
was  absolute,  became  a  necessity.  It  was  soon  seen 
that  there  was  ground  for  scepticism.  The  priests  re- 
sented criticism  by  representing  the  sceptic  of  their 
pretensions,  as  being  sceptical  of  everything,  whereas 
they  were  only  sceptics  of  clerical  infallibility.  They 
indeed  did  aver  that  branches  of  human  knowledge, 
received  as  well  establisned,  were  really  open  to  ques- 
tion, in  order  to  show  that  if  men  could  not  be  con- 
fident of  things  of  which  they  had  experience,  how 
could  the  Churches  be  confident  of  things  of  which  no 
man  had  experience — and  which  contradicted  experi- 
ence? So  far  from  disbelieving  everything,  scepticism 
went  everywhere  in  search  of  truth  and  certainty. 
Since  the  Church  could  not  be  absolutely  certain  of 
the  truth  of  its  tenets,  its  duty  was  to  be  tolerant. 
But  being  intolerant  it  became  as  Julian  Hibbert  put 
it — "well-understood  self-defence"  to  assail  it.  The 
Church  fought  for  power,  the  thinker  fought  for  truth. 
Free  thought  among  the  people  may  be  likened  to 
a  good  ship  manned  by  adventurous  mariners,  who, 
cruising  about  in  the  ocean  of  theology  came  upon 
sirens,  as  other  mariners  had  done  before — dangerous 
to  be  followed  by  navigators  bound  to  ports  of  pro- 
gress. Many  were  thereby  decoyed  to  their  own  de- 
struction. The  sirens  of  the  Churches  sang  alluring 
songs  whose  refrains  were  : 


20  ENGLISH  SECULARISM, 

1.  The  Bible  the  guide  of  God. 

2.  The  origin  of  the  universe  disclosed. 

3.  The  care  of  Providence  assured. 

4.  Deliverance  from  peril  by  prayer  dependable. 

5.  Original  sin  effaceable  by  grace. 

6.  Perdition  avoidable  by  faith  in  crucifixion. 

7.  Future  life  revealed. 

These  propositions  were  subjects  of  resonant 
hymns,  sermons,  and  tracts,  and  were  not,  and  are 
not,  disowned,  but  still  defended  in  discussion  by  or- 
thodox and  clerical  advocates.  Save  salvation  by  the 
blood  of  Christ  (a  painful  idea  to  entertain),  the  other 
ideas  might  well  fascinate  the  uninquiring.  They  had 
enchanted  many  believers,  but  the  explorers  of  whom 
we  speak  had  acquired  the  questioning  spirit,  and  had 
learned  prudently  to  look  at  both  sides  of  familiar  sub- 
jects and  soon  discovered  that  the  fair-seeming  propo- 
sitions which  had  formerly  imposed  on  their  imagina- 
tion were  unsound,  unsightly,  and  unsafe.  The  Syra- 
cusans  of  old  kept  a  school  in  which  slaves  were  taught 
the  ways  of  bondage.  Christianity  has  kept  such  a 
school  in  which  subjection  of  the  understanding  was 
inculcated,  and  the  pupils,  now  free  to  investigate,  re- 
solved to  see  whether  such  things  were  true. 

Then  began  the  reign  of  refutation  of  theological 
error,  by  some  from  indignation  at  having  been  im- 
posed upon,  by  others  from  zeal  that  misconception 
should  end ;  by  more  from  enthusiasm  for  facts ;  by 
the  bolder  sort  from  resentment  at  the  intimidation 


SECOND  STAGE  OF  FREE  THOUGHT.  21 

and  cruelty  with  which  inquiry  had  been  suppressed 
so  long  ;  and  by  not  a  few  from  the  love  of  disputation 
which  has  for  some  the  delight  men  have  for  chess  or 
cricket,  or  other  pursuit  which  has  conflict  and  con- 
quest in  it. 

Self-determined  thought  is  a  condition  of  the  pro- 
gress of  nations.  Where  would  science  be  but  for  open 
thought,  the  nursing  mother  of  enterprise,  of  discov- 
ery, of  invention,  of  new  conditions  of  human  better- 
ment? 

A  modern  Hindu  writer^  tells  us  that :  "The Hindu 
is  sorely  handicapped  by  customs  which  are  prescribed 
by  his  religious  books.  Hedged  in  by  minute  rules 
and  restrictions  the  various  classes  forming  the  Hindu 
community  have  had  but  little  room  for  expansion  and 
progress.  The  result  has  been  stagnation.  Caste  has 
prevented  the  Hindus  from  sinking,  but  it  has  also 
preventing  them  from  rising." 

The  old  miracle-bubbles  which  the  Jews  blew  into 
the  air  of  wonder  two  thousand  years  ago,  delight 
churches  still  in  their  childhood.  The  sea  of  theology 
would  have  been  stagnant  centuries  ago,  had  not  in- 
surgent thinkers,  at  the  peril  of  their  lives,  created 
commotion  in  it.  Morals  would  have  been  poisoned 
on  the  shores  of  theology  had  not  free  thought  purified 
the  waters  by  putting  the  salt  of  reason  into  that  sea, 
freshening  it  year  by  year. 

1  Pramatba  Nath  Bom. 


CHAPTER  V. 


CONQUESTS  OF  INVESTIGATION. 

"The  secret  of  Genius  is  to  suffer  no  fic- 
tion to  live." — Goethe. 

THEOLOGIANS  had  so  choked  the  human  mind 
with  a  dense  undergrowth  of  dogmas  that  it  was 
like  cutting  through  an  African  forest,  such  as  Stanley 
encountered,  to  find  the  paths  of  truth. 

On  that  path,  when  found,  many  things  unforeseen 
before,  became  plain.  The  siren  songs  of  orthodoxy 
were  discovered  to  have  strange  discords  of  sense  in 
them. 

I.  The  Guide  of  God  seemed  to  be  very  human — not 
authentic,  not  consistent — containing  things  not  read- 
able nor  explainable  in  the  family;  pagan  fictions,  such 
as  the  Incarnation  reluctantly  believable  as  the  device 
of  a  moral  deity.  Men  of  genius  and  of  noble  ethical 
sympathy  do  however  deem  it  defensible.  In  any  hu- 
man book  the  paternal  exaction  of  such  suffering  as 
fell  to  Christ,  would  be  regarded  with  alarm  and  re- 
pugnance. Wonder  was  felt  that  Scripture,  purporting 
to  contain  the  will  of  deity,  should  not  be  expressed 
so  unmistakably  that  ignorance  could  not  misunder- 


CONQUESTS  OF  INVESTIGATION.  23 

Stand  it,  nor  perversity  misconstrue  it.   The  gods  know 
how  to  write. 

2.  The  origin  of  all  things  has  excited  and  dis- 
appointed the  curiosity  of  the  greatest  exploring  minds 
of  every  age.  That  the  secret  of  the  universe  is  un- 
disclosed, is  manifest  from  the  different  and  differing 
conjectures  concerning  it.  The  origin  of  the  universe 
remains  unknowable.  What  awe  fills  or  rather  takes 
possession  of  the  mind  which  comprehends  this '  Why 
existence  exists  is  the  cardinal  wonder. 

3.  Pleasant  and  free  from  anxiety,  life  would  be 
were  it  true,  that  Providence  is  a  present  help  in  the 
day  of  need.  Alas,  to  the  poor  it  is  evident  that  Prov- 
idence does  not  interfere,  either  to  befriend  the  good 
in  their  distress,  or  arrest  the  bad  in  the  act  of  crime. 

4.  The  power  of  prayer  has  been  the  hope  of  the 
helpless  and  the  oppressed  in  every  age.  Every  man 
wishes  it  was  true  that  help  could  be  had  that  way. 
Then  every  just  man  could  protect  himself  at  will 
against  his  adversaries.  But  experience  shows  that 
all  entreaty  is  futile  to  induce  Providence  to  change 
its  universal  habit  of  non-intervention.  Prayer  be- 
guiles the  poor  but  provides  no  dinner.  Mr.  Spurgeon 
said  at  the  Tabernacle  that  prayer  filled  his  meal 
barrel  when  empty.  I  asked  that  he  should  publish 
the  recipe  in  the  interests  of  the  hungry.  But  he  made 
no  reply. 

5.  There  is  reason  to  think  that  original  sin  is 
not  anything  more  than  original  ignorance.     The  be- 


24  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

lief  in  natural  depravity  discourages  all  efforts  of  pro- 
gress. The  primal  imperfection  of  human  nature  is  only 
effaceable  by  knowledge  and  persistent  endeavor.  Even 
in  things  lawful  to  do,  excess  is  sin,  judged  by  human 
standards.     There  may  be  error  without  depravity. 

6.  Eternal  perdition  for  conscientious  belief, 
whether  erroneous  or  not,  is  humanly  incredible.  The 
devisors  of  this  doctrine  must  have  been  unaware  that 
belief  is  an  affair  of  ignorance,  prejudice,  custom, 
education,  or  evidence.  The  liability  of  the  human 
race  to  eternal  punishment  is  the  foundation  on  which 
all  Christianity  (except  Unitarianism)  rests.  This 
awful  belief,  if  acted  upon  with  the  sincerity  that 
Christianity  declares  it  should  be,  would  terminate  all 
enjoyment,  and  all  enterprise  would  cease  in  the  world. 
None  would  ever  marry.  No  persons,  with  any  hu- 
manity in  their  hearts  would  take  upon  themselves  the 
awful  responsibility  of  increasing  the  number  of  the 
damned.  The  registrar  of  births  would  be  the  most 
fiendish  clerk  conceivable.  He  would  be  practically 
the  secretary  of  hell. 

The  theory  that  all  the  world  was  lost  through  a 
curious  and  enterprising  lady,  eating  an  apricot  or  an 
apple,  and  that  three  thousand  or  more  years  after, 
mankind  had  to  be  redeemed  by  the  murder  of  an  in- 
nocent Jew,  is  of  a  nature  to  make  men  afraid  to  be- 
lieve in  a  deity  accused  of  contriving  so  dreadful  a 
scheme. 

Though  this  reasoning  will  seem  to  many  an  argu- 


CONQ U£S 2  S  OF  INVEST JG A  TJON.  25 

ment  against  the  existence  of  God  whereas  it  is  merely 
against  the  attributes  of  deity,  as  ascribed  to  him  by 
Christianity.  If  God  be  not  moral,  in  the  human  sense 
of  the  term,  he  may  as  well  be  not  moral  at  all.  It  is 
only  he  whose  principles  of  justice,  men  can  under- 
stand, that  men  can  trust.  Prof.  T.  H.  Huxley,  con- 
spicuous for  his  clearness  of  view  and  dispassionate- 
ness of  judgment,  was  of  this  opinion,  and  said  :  "  The 
suggestion  arises,  if  God  is  the  cause  of  all  things  he  is 
responsible  for  evil  as  well  as  for  good,  and  it  appears 
utterly  irreconcilable  with  our  notions  of  justice  that 
he  should  punish  another  for  that  which  he  has  in  fact 
done  himself."  The  poet  concurs  with  the  philoso- 
pher when  he  exclaims  : 

"The  loving  worm  within  its  clod, 
Were  diviner  than  a  loveless  God 
Amid  his  worlds."* 

Christianity  indeed  speaks  of  the  love  of  God  in  send- 
ing his  son  to  die  for  the  security  of  others.  But  not 
less  is  the  heart  of  the  intelligent  and  humane  believer 
torn  with  fear,  as  he  thinks  what  must  be  the  charac- 
ter of  that  God  who  could  only  be  thus  appeased.  The 
example  of  self-sacrifice  is  noble — but  is  it  noble  in 
any  one  who  deliberately  creates  the  necessity  for  it? 
The  better  side  of  Christianity  seems  overshadowed 
by  the  worse. 

7.   Future  life  is  uncertain,  being  unprovable  and 
seemingly  improbable,  judging  from  the  dependence 

l-Browaiai;. 


26  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

of  life  on  material  conditions.  Christians  themselves 
do  not  seem  confident  of  another  existence.  If  they 
were  sure  of  it,  who  of  them  would  linger  here  when 
those  they  love  and  honor  have  gone  before?  Ere  we 
reach  the  middle  of  our  days,  the  joy  of  every  heart 
lies  in  some  tomb.  If  the  Christian  actually  believed 
that  the  future  was  real,  would  he  hang  black  plumes 
over  the  hearse,  and  speak  of  death  as  darkness?  No  ! 
the  cemeteries  would  be  bung  with  joyful  lights,  the 
grave  would  be  the  gate  of  Paradise.  Every  one  would 
find  justifiable  excuse  for  leaving  this  for  the  happier 
world.  All  tenets  which  are  contradicted  by  reason 
had  better  not  be. 

Many  preachers  now  disown,  in  controversy,  these 
doctrines,  but  until  they  carry  the  professions  of  the 
platform  into  the  statute  book,  the  rubric,  and  the  pul- 
pit, such  doctrines  remain  operative,  and  the  Churches 
remain  answerable  for  them.  Nonconformists  do  not 
protest  against  a  State  Church  on  account  of  its  doc- 
trines herein  enumerated.  When  the  doctrines  which 
conflict  with  reason  and  humanity  are  disowned  by 
authority,  ecclesiastical  and  legal,  in  all  denomina- 
tions, the  duty  of  controverting  them  as  impediments 
to  progress  will  cease. 

It  may  be  said  in  reply  to  what  is  here  set  forth  as 
tenets  of  Christian  Scripture,  that  the  writer  follows 
the  letter  and  not  the  spirit  of  the  word.  Yes,  that  is 
what  he  does.  He  is  well  aware  of  the  new  practice 
of  seeking  refuge  in  the  "spirit,"  of  "expanding"  the 


CONQUESTS  OF  INVESTIGATION.  27 

letter  and  taking  a  "new  range  of  view."  He  however 
holds  that  to  drop  the  "letter"  is  to  drop  the  doc- 
trine. To  "expand"  the  "letter"  is  to  change  it. 
New  "  range  of  view  "  is  the  term  under  which  deser- 
tion of  the  text  is  disguised.  But  "  new  range"  means 
new  thought,  which  in  this  insidious  way  is  put  for- 
ward to  supersede  the  old.  The  frank  way  is  to  say 
so,  and  admit  that  the  "letter"  is  obsolete — is  gone, 
is  disproved,  and  that  new  views  which  are  truer  con- 
stitute the  new  letter  of  progress.  The  best  thing  to 
do  with  the  "dead  hand  "  is  to  bury  it.  To  try  to  ex- 
pand dissolution  is  but  galvanising  the  corpse  and 
tying  the  dead  to  the  living.  ,      -4  - 


CHAPTER  VI. 


STATIONARINESS  OF  CRITICISM. 

"  Zt-i]  without  knowledge  is  like  expedi- 
tion to  a  man  in  the  dark." — /akn  Newton. 

CRITICISM  in  theology,  as  in  literature,  is  with 
many  an  intoxication.  Zest  in  showing  what  is 
wrong  is  apt  to  blunt  the  taste  for  what  is  right,  which 
it  is  the  true  end  of  criticism  to  discover.  Lord  Byron 
said  critics  disliked  Pope  because  he  afforded  them  so 
few  chances  of  objection.  They  found  fault  with  him 
because  he  had  no  faults.  The  criticism  of  theology 
begets  complacency  in  many.  There  is  a  natural  satis- 
faction in  being  free  from  the  superstition  of  the  vul- 
gar, in  the  Church  as  well  as  out  of  it.  No  wonder 
many  find  abiding  pleasure  in  the  intellectual  refuta- 
tion of  the  errors  of  supernaturalism  and  in  putting  its 
priests  to  confusion.  Absorbed  in  the  antagonism  of 
theology,  many  lose  sight  of  ultimate  utility,  and  re- 
gard error,  not  as  a  misfortune  to  be  alleviated,  so 
much  as  a  fault  to  be  exposed.  Like  the  theologian 
whose  color  they  take,  they  do  not  much  consider 
whether  their  method  causes  men  to  dislike  the  truth 
through  its  manner  of  being  offered  to  them.     Their 


STATIONAKINESS  OF  CRITICISM.  29 

ambition  is  to  make  those  in  error  look  foolish.  Free 
thinkers  of  zeal  are  apt  to  become  intense,  and  like 
Jules  Ferry  (a  late  French  premier),  care  less  for  power, 
than  for  conflict,  and  the  lover  of  conflict  is  not  easily 
induced  to  regard  the  disproof  of  theology  as  a  means 
to  an  end'  higher  than  itself.  It  is  difficult  to  impart 
to  uncalculating  zealots  a  sense  of  proportion.  They 
dash  along  the  warpath  by  their  own  momentum.  Rail- 
way engineers  find  that  it  takes  twice  as  much  power 
to  stop  an  express  train  as  it  does  to  start  it. 

When  I  first  knew  free  thought  societies  they  were 
engaged  in  Church-fighting — which  is  still  popular 
among  them,  and  which  has  led  the  public  to  confuse 
criticism  with  Secularism,  an  entirely  different  thing. 

Insurgent  thought  exclusively  directed,  breeds,  as 
is  said  elsewhere,  a  distinguished  class  of  men — among 
scholars  as  well  as  among  the  uninformed — who  have 
a  passion  for  disputation,  which  like  other  passions 
"  grows  by  what  it  feeds  upon."  Yet  a  limited  number 
of  such  paladins  of  investigation  are  not  without  uses 
in  the  economy  of  civilisations.  They  resemble  the 
mighty  hunters  of  old,  they  extirpate  beasts  of  prey 
which  roam  the  theological  forests,  and  thus  they  ren- 
der life  more  safe  to  dwellers  in  cities,  open  to  the 
voracious  incursions  of  supernaturalism. 

Without  the  class  of  combatants  described,  in  whom 
discussion  is  irrepressible,  and  whose  courage  neither 


1  Buckle  truly  says,  "  Liberty  is  not  a  means,  it  is  an  end  in  itself."    But 
the  uses  of  liberty  are  means  to  ends     Else  why  do  we  want  liberty  ? 


3° 


ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 


odium  nor  danger  abates,  many  castles  of  supersti- 
tion would  never  be  stormed.  But  mere  intellectual- 
ism  generates  a  different  and  less  useful  species  of 
thinkers,  who  neither  hunt  in  the  jungles  of  theology 
nor  storm  strongholds.  We  all  know  hundreds  in  every 
great  town  who  have  freed  themselves,  or  have  been 
freed  by  others,  from  ecclesiastical  error,  who  remain 
supine.  Content  with  their  own  superiority  (which 
they  owe  to  the  pioneers  v/ho  went  before  them  more 
generous  than  they)  they  speak  no  word,  and  lend  no 
aid  towards  conferring  the  same  advantages  upon  such 
as  are  still  enslaved.  They  affect  to  despise  the  ig- 
norance they  ought  to  be  foremost  to  dissipate.  They 
exclaim  in  the  words  of  Goethe's  Coptic  song : 

"  Fools  from  their  folly  'tis  hopeless  to  stay, 

Mules  will  be  mules  by  the  laws  of  their  mulishness, 
Then  be  advised  and  leave  fools  to  their  foolishness, 
What  from  an  ass  can  be  got  but  a  bray." 

These  Coptic  philosophers  overlook  that  they  would 
have  been  "asses"  also,  had  those  who  vindicated 
freedom  before  their  day,  and  raised  it  to  a  power, 
been  as  indifferent  and  as  contemptuous  as  believers 
in  the  fool-theory  are.  Coptic  thinkers  forget  that 
every  man  is  a  fool  in  respect  of  any  question  on  which 
he  gives  an  opinion  without  having  thought  independ- 
ently upon  it.  With  patience  you  can  make  a  thinker 
out  of  a  fool ;  and  the  first  step  from  the  fool  stage  is 
accomplished  by  a  little  thinking.  It  is  well  to  re- 
member the  exclamation  of  Thackeray:   "If  thou  hast 


STATIONARINESS  OF  CRITICISM.  31 

never  been  a  fool,  be  sure  thou  wilt  never  be  a  wise 
man." 

It  is,  however,  but  justice  to  some  who  join  the 
stationariness,  to  own  that  they  have  fared  badly  on 
the  warpath  against  error,  and  are  entitled  to  the 
sympathy  we  extend  to  the  battered  soldier  who  falls 
out  of  the  ranks  on  the  march.  Grote  indicates  what 
the  severity  of  the  service  is,  in  the  following  pas- 
sage from  his  Mischiefs  of  Natural  Religion  : — "Of  all 
human  antipathies  that  which  the  believer  in  a  God 
bears  to  the  unbeliever,  is  the  fullest,  the  most  un- 
qualified, and  the  most  universal.  The  mere  circum- 
stance of  dissent  involves  a  tacit  imputation  of  error 
and  incapacity  on  the  part  of  the  priest,  who  discerns 
that  his  persuasive  power  is  not  rated  so  highly  by 
others  as  it  is  by  himself.  This  invariably  begets  dis- 
like towards  his  antagonist." 

Nevertheless  it  is  a  reproach  to  those  whom  mili- 
tant thought  has  made  free,  if  they  remain  unmindful 
of  the  fate  of  their  inferiors.  Yet  Christian  churches, 
with  all  self-complacent  superiority  to  which  many  of 
them  are  prone,  are  not  free  from  the  sins  of  indif- 
ference and  superfineness.  This  was  conspicuously 
shown  by  Southey  in  a  letter  to  Sir  Henry  Taylor,  in 
which  he  says : — "Have  you  seen  the  strange  book 
which  Anastasius  Hope  left  for  publication  and  which 
his  representatives,  in  spite  of  all  dissuasion,  have  pub- 
lished? His  notion  of  immortality  and  heaven  is  that 
at  the  consummation  of  all  things  he,  and  you,  and  I, 


32  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

and  John  Murray,  and  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  Lambert 
the  fat  man,  and  the  Living  Skeleton,  and  Queen 
Elizabeth,  and  the  Hottentot,  Venus,  and  Thutell, 
and  Probert,  and  the  Twelve  Apostles,  and  the  noble 
army  of  martyrs,  and  Genghis  Khan  and  all  his  ar- 
mies, and  Noah  with  all  his  ancestors  and  all  his  pos- 
terity,— yea,  all  men,  and  all  women,  and  all  children 
that  have  ever  been,  or  ever  shall  be,  saints  and  sin- 
ners alike,  are  all  to  be  put  together  and  made  into 
one  great  celestial,  eternal  human  being  ...  I  do  not 
like  the  scheme.  I  don't  like  the  notion  of  being 
mixed  up  with  Hume,  and  Hunt,  and  Whittle  Harvey, 
and  Philpotts,  and  Lord  Althorp,  and  the  Huns,  and 
the  Hottentots,  and  the  Jews,  and  the  Philistines,  and 
the  Scotch,  and  the  Irish.  God  forbid  !  I  hope  to  be 
I,  myself,  in  an  English  heaven,  with  you  yourself, — 
you  and  some  others  without  whom  heaven  would  be 
no  heaven  to  me." 

Most  of  these  persons  would  have  the  same  dislike 
to  be  mixed  up  with  Mr.  Southey.  Lord  Byron  would 
not  have  been  enthusiastic  about  it.  The  Comtists 
have  done  something  to  preach  a  doctrine  of  humanity, 
and  to  put  an  end  to  this  pitiful  contempt  of  a  few 
men  for  their  fellows, — fellows  who  in  many  respects 
are  often  superior  to  those  who  despise  them. 

All  superiority  is  apt  to  be  contemptuous  of  inferi- 
ors, unless  conscience  and  generosity  takes  care  of  it, 
and  incites  it  to  instruct  inferior  natures.  The  prayer 
of  Browning  is  one  of  noble  discernment : — 


STA  TIONARINESS  OF  CRITICISM.  33 

"  Make  no  more  giants,  God — 
But  elevate  the  race  at  once." 

Even  free  thought,  so  far  as  it  confines  itself  to  it- 
self, becomes  stationary.   Like  the  squirrel  in  its  cage: 

"  Whether  it  turns  by  wood  or  wire, 
Never  gets  one  hair's  breadth  higher." 

If  any  doubt  whether  stationariness  of  thought  is 
possible,  let  them  think  of  Protestantism  which  climbed 
on  to  the  ledge  of  private  judgment  three  centuries 
ago — and  has  remained  there.  Instead  of  mounting 
higher  and  overrunning  all  the  plateaus  of  error  above 
them,  it  has  done  its  best  to  prevent  any  who  would 
do  it,  from  ascending.  There  is  now,  however,  a  new 
order  of  insurgent  thought  of  the  excelsior  caste  which 
seeks  to  climb  the  heights.  Distinguished  writers 
against  theology  in  the  past  have  regarded  destructive 
criticism  as  preparing  the  way  to  higher  conceptions 
of  life  and  duty.  If  so  little  has  been  done  in  this 
direction  among  working  class  thinkers,  it  is  because 
destructiveness  is  more  easy.  It  needs  only  indigna- 
tion to  perfect  it,  and  indignation  requires  no  effort. 
The  faculty  of  constructiveness  is  more  arduous  in  ex- 
ercise, and  is  later  in  germination.  More  men  are 
able  to  take  a  state  than  to  make  a  state.  Hence  Sec- 
ularism, though  inevitable  as  the  next  stage  of  mili- 
tant progress,  more  slowly  wins  adherents  and  appre- 
ciation. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


THIRD  STAGE  OF  FREE  THOUGHT— SECULARISM. 

"  Nothing  is  destroyed  until  it  has  been  re- 
placed."— Madame  de  Stael. 

SEEING  this  wise  maxim  in  a  paper  by  Auguste 
Comte,  I  asked  my  friend  Wm.  de  Fonvielle,  who 
was  in  communication  with  Comte,  to  learn  for  me  the 
authorship  of  the  phrase.  Comte  answered  that  it  was 
the  Emperor's  (Napoleon  III.).  It  first  appeared,  as  I 
afterwards  found,  in  the  writings  of  Madame  de  Stael, 
and  more  fully  expressed  by  her. 

Self-regard ing  criticism  having  discovered  the  in- 
sufficiency of  theology  for  the  guidance  of  man,  next 
sought  to  ascertain  what  rules  human  reason  may  sup- 
ply for  the  independent  conduct  of  life,  which  is  the 
object  of  Secularism. 

At  first,  the  term  was  taken  to  be  a  "mask"  con- 
cealing sinister  features — a  "new  name  for  an  old 
thing" — or  as  a  substitute  term  for  scepticism  or  athe 
ism.  If  impressions  were  always  knowledge,  men 
would  be  wise  without  inquiry,  and  explanations  would 
be  unnecessary.  The  term  Secularism  was  chosen  to 
express  the  extension  of  free  thought  to  ethics.     Free 


JIIIRD  STAGE  OF  FREE  THOUGHT.  35 

thinkers  commonly  go  no  further  than  saying,  "We 
search  for  truth"';  Secularists  say  we  have  found  it — 
at  least,  so  much  as  replaces  the  chief  errors  and  un- 
certainties of  theology. 

Harriet  Martineau,  the  most  intrepid  thinker  among 
the  women  of  her  day,  wrote  to  Lloyd  Garrison  a  letter 
(inserted  in  the  Liberator,  1853)  approving  "  the  term 
Secularism  as  including  a  large  number  of  persons  who 
are  not  atheists  and  uniting  them  for  action,  which  has 
Secularism  for  its  object.  By  the  adoption  of  the  new 
term  avast  amount  of  prejudice  is  got  rid  of."  At 
length  it  was  seen  that  the  "new  term"  designated  a 
new  conception. 

Secularism  is  a  code  of  duty  pertaining  to  this  life, 
founded  on  considerations  purely  human,  and  intended 
mainly  for  those  who  find  theology  indefinite  or  inade- 
quate, unreliable  or  unbelievable. 

Its  essential  principles  are  three : 

1.  The  improvement  of  this  life  by  material  means. 

2.  That  science  is  the  available^  Providence  of  man. 

3.  That  it  is  good  to  do  good.  Whether  there  be 
other  good  or  not,  the  good  of  the  present  life  is  good, 
and  it  is  good  to  seek  that  good. 

1  M.  Aurelius  Antoninus  said,  "  I  seek  the  truth  by  which  no  maft  was  ever 
injured."  It  would  be  true  had  he  said  mankind.  Men  are  continually  in- 
jured by  the  truth,  or  how  do  martyrs  come,  or  why  do  we  honor  them  ? 

2This  phrase  was  a  suggestion  of  my  friend  the  Rev.  Dr.  H.  T.  Crosskey 
about  1854.  I  afterwards  used  the  word  "available"  which  does  not  deny, 
nor  challenge,  nor  affirm  the  belief  in  a  theological  Providence  by  others, 
who,  therefore,  are  not  incited  to  assail  the  effectual  proposition  that  material 
resources  are  an  available  Providence  where  a  spiritual  Providence  is  inac- 
tive. 


36  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

Individual  good  attained  by  methods  conducive  to 
the  good  of  others,  is  the  highest  aim  of  man,  whether 
regard  be  had  to  human  welfare  in  this  life  or  personal 
fitness  for  another.  Precedence  is  therefore  given  to 
the  duties  of  this  life. 

Being  asked  to  send  to  the  International  Congress 
of  Liberal  Thinkers,  (1886),  an  account  of  the  tenets 
of  the  English  party  known  as  Secularists,  I  gave  the 
following  explanation  to  them. 

"The  Secular  is  that,  the  issues  of  which  can  be 
tested  by  the  experience  of  this  life. 

**The  ground  common  to  all  self-determined  think- 
ers is  that  of  independency  of  opinion,  known  as  free 
thought,  which  though  but  an  impulse  of  intellectual 
courage  in  the  search  for  truth,  or  an  impulse  of  ag- 
gression against  hurtful  or  irritating  error,  or  the  ca- 
price of  a  restless  mind,  is  to  be  encouraged.  It  is 
necessary  to  promote  independent  thought — whatever 
its  manner  of  manifestation — since  there  can  be  no 
progress  without  it.  A  Secularist  is  intended  to  be  a 
reasoner,  that  is  as  Coleridge  defined  him,  one  who 
inquires  what  a  thing  is,  and  not  only  what  it  is,  but 
why  it  is  what  it  is. 

"One  of  two  great  forces  of  opinion  created  in  this 
age,  is  what  is  known  as  atheism,^  which  deprives  su- 
perstition of  its  standing-ground  and  compels  theism. 
to  reason  for  its  existence.   The  other  force  is  material- 


1  Huxley's  term  agnosticism   implies  a  dillerent   thing— unknowingness 
without  denial. 


THIRD  STAGE  OF  FREE  THOUGHT.  37 

ism  which  shows  the  physical  consequences  of  error, 
supplying,  as  it  were,  beacon  lights  to  morality. 

"Though  respecting  the  right  of  the  atheist  and 
theist  to  their  theories  of  the  origin  of  nature,  the 
Secularist  regards  them  as  belonging  to  the  debat- 
able ground  of  speculation.  Secularism  neither  asks 
nor  gives  any  opinion  upon  them,  confining  itself  to 
the  entirely  independent  field  of  study — the  order  of 
the  universe.  Neither  asserting  nor  denying  theism 
or  a  future  life,  having  no  sufficient  reason  to  give  if 
called  upon  ;  the  fact  remains  that  material  influences 
exist,  vast  and  available  for  good,  as  men  have  the 
will  and  wit  to  employ  them.  Whatever  may  be  the 
value  of  metaphysical  or  theological  theories  of  morals, 
utility  in  conduct  is  a  daily  test  of  common  sense,  and 
is  capable  of  deciding  intelligently  more  questions  of 
practical  duty  than  any  other  rule.  Considerations 
which  pertain  to  the  general  welfare,  operate  without 
the  machinery  of  theological  creeds,  and  over  masses 
of  men  in  every  land  to  whom  Christian  incentives  are 
alien,  or  disregarded. " 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THREE  PRINCIPLES  VINDICATED. 

"Be -wisely  worldly,  but  not  worldly  wise." 
— Francis  Quarles. 

FIRST  PRINCIPLE  :  Of  material  means  as  condi- 
tions of  ivelfare  in  this  world. — Theology  works 
by  "spiritual"  means,  Secularism  by  material  means. 
Christians  and  Secularists  both  intend  raising  the  char- 
acter of  the  people,  but  their  methods  are  very  differ- 
ent. Christians  are  now  beginning  to  employ  material 
agencies  for  the  elevation  of  life,  which  science,  and 
not  theology,  has  brought  under  their  notice.  But  the 
Christian  does  not  trust  these  agencies;  the  Secularist 
does,  and  in  his  mind  the  Secular  is  sacred.  Spiritual 
means  can  never  be  depended  upon  for  food,  raiment, 
art,  or  national  defence. 

The  Archbishop  of  York  (Dr.  Magee),  a  clear- 
headed and  candid  prelate,  surprised  his  contempora- 
ries (at  the  Diocesan  Conference,  Leicester,  October 
19,  1889")  by  declaring  that  "Christianity  made  no 
claim  to  rearrange  the  economic  relations  of  man  in 
the  State,  or  in  society.  He  hoped  he  would  be  un- 
derstood when  he  said  plainly  that  it  was  his  firm  be- 


THREE  PEINCJPLES  VINDICATED.  39 

lief  that  any  Christian  State,  carrying  out  in  all  its 
relations,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  could  not  exist 
for  a  week.  It  was  perfectly  clear  that  a  State  could 
not  continue  to  exist  upon  what  were  commonly  called 
Christian  principles." 

From  the  first.  Secularism  had  based  its  claims  to 
be  regarded  on  the  fact  that  only  the  rich  could  afford 
to  be  Christians,  and  the  poor  must  look  to  other  prin- 
ciples for  deliverance. 

Material  means  are  those  which  are  calculable, 
which  are  under  the  control  and  command  of  man, 
and  can  be  tested  by  human  experience.  No  defini- 
tion of  Secularism  shows  its  distinctiveness  which 
omits  to  specify  material  means  as  its  method  of  pro- 
cedure. 

But  for  the  theological  blasphemy  of  nature,  repre- 
senting it  as  the  unintelligent  tool  of  God,  the  Secular 
would  have  ennobled  common  life  long  ago.  Sir  God- 
frey Kneller  said,  "He  never  looked  on  a  bad  picture 
but  he  carried  away  in  his  mind  a  dirty  tint."  Secu- 
larism would  efface  the  dirty  tints  of  life  which  Chris- 
tianity has  prayed  over,  but  not  removed. 

Second  Principle  :  Of  the  providence  of  science. — 
Men  are  limited  in  power,  and  are  oft  in  peril,  and 
those  who  are  taught  to  trust  to  supernatural  aid  are 
betrayed  to  their  own  destruction.  We  are  told  we 
should  work  as  though  there  were  no  help  in  heaven, 
and  pray  as  though  there  were  no  help  in  ourselves. 
Since,  however,  praying  saves  no  ship,  arrests  no  dis- 


40  ENGLISH  SECULARISM, 

ease,  and  does  not  pay  the  tax-gatherer,  it  is  better 
to  work  at  once  and  without  the  digression  of  sinking 
prayer-buckets  into  empty  wells,  and  spending  life  in 
drawing  nothing  up.  The  word  illuminating  secular 
life  is  self-help.  The  Secularist  vexes  not  the  ear  of 
heaven  by  mendicant  supplications.  His  is  the  only 
religion  that  gives  heaven  no  trouble. 

Third  Principle  :  Of  goodness  as  fitness  for  this 
7vorId  or  another. — Goodness  is  the  service  of  others 
with  a  view  to  their  advantage.  There  is  no  higher 
human  merit.  Human  welfare  is  the  sanction  of  mo- 
rality. The  measure  of  a  good  action  is  its  conducive- 
ness  to  progress.  The  utilitarian  test  of  generous  right- 
ness  in  motive  may  be  open  to  objection, — there  is  no 
test  which  is  not, — but  the  utilitarian  rule  is  one  com- 
prehensible by  every  mind.  It  is  the  only  rule  which 
makes  knowledge  necessary,  and  becomes  more  lumi- 
nous as  knowledge  increases.  A  fool  may  be  a  be- 
liever,^ but  not  a  utilitarian  who  seeks  his  ground  of 
action  in  the  largest  field  of  relevant  facts  his  mind  is 
able  to  survey. 

Utility  in  morals  is  measuring  the  good  of  one  by 
its  agreement  with  the  good  of  many.  Large  ideas 
are  when  a  man  measures  the  good  of  his  parish  by 
the  good  of  the  town,  the  good  of  the  town  by  the 
good  of  the  county,  the  good  of  the  county  by  the 
good  of  the  country,  the  good  of  the  country  by  the 


ITtie  Guardian  told  us  about  1887  that  the  Bishop  of  Exeter  confirmed 
fire  idiots. 


THREE  PRINCIPLES  VINDICATED.  41 

good  of  the  continent,  the  good  of  the  continent  by 
the  cosmopolitanism  of  the  world. 

Truth  and  solicitude  for  the  social  welfare  of  others 
are  the  proper  concern  of  a  soul  worth  saving.  Only 
minds  with  goodness  in  them  have  the  desert  of  future 
existence.  Minds  without  veracity  and  generosity  die. 
The  elements  of  death  are  in  the  selfish  already.  They 
could  not  live  in  a  better  world  if  they  were  admitted. 

In  a  noble  passage  in  his  sermon  on  "Citizen- 
ship" the  Rev.  Stopford  Brooks  said:  "There  are 
thousands  of  my  fellow-citizens,  men,  and  women,  and 
children,  who  are  living  in  conditions  in  which  they 
have  no  true  means  of  becoming  healthy  in  body, 
trained  in  mind,  or  comforted  by  beauty.  Life  is  as 
hard  for  them  as  it  is  easy  for  me.  I  cannot  help  them 
by  giving  them  money,  one  by  one,  but  I  can  help 
them  by  making  the  condition  of  their  life  easier  by  a 
good  government  of  the  city  in  which  they  live.  And 
even  if  the  charge  on  my  property  for  this  purpose  in- 
creases for  a  time,  year  by  year,  till  the  work  is  done, 
that  charge  I  will  gladly  pay.  It  shall  be  my  ethics, 
my  religion,  my  patriotism,  my  citizenship  to  do  it."^ 
The  great  preacher  whose  words  are  here  cited,  like 
Theodore  Parker,  the  Jupiter  of  the  pulpit  in  his  day, 
as  Wendell  Phillips  described  him  to  me,  is  not  a 
Secularist ;  but  he  expresses  here  the  religion  of  the 

1  Preached  in  reference  to  the  London  County  Council  election,  March, 
189s. 


42  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

Secularist,  if  such  a  person  can  be  supposed  to  have 
a  religion. 

A  theological  creed  which  the  base  may  hold,  and 
usually  do,  has  none  of  the  merit  of  deeds  of  service 
to  humanity,  which  only  the  good  intentionally  per- 
form. Conscience  is  the  sense  of  right  with  regard  to 
others,  it  is  a  sense  of  duty  towards  others  which  tells 
us  that  we  should  do  justice  to  them  ;  and  if  not  able 
to  do  it  individually,  to  endeavor  to  get  it  done  by 
others.  At  St.  Peter's  Gate  there  can  be  no  passport 
so  safe  as  this.  He  was  not  far  wrong  who,  when 
asked  where  heaven  lay,  answered:  "On  the  other 
side  of  a  good  action." 

If,  as  Dr.  James  Martineau  says,  "there  is  a 
thought  of  God  in  the  thing  that  is  true,  and  a  will  of 
God  in  that  which  is  right,"  Secularism,  caring  for 
truth  and  duty,  cannot  be  far  wrong.  Thus,  it  has  a 
reasonable  regard  for  the  contingencies  of  another  life 
should  it  supervene.  Reasoned  opinions  rely  for  justi- 
fication upon  intelligent  conviction,  and  a  well  in- 
formed sincerity. 

The  Secularist,  is  without  presumption  of  an  in- 
fallible creed,  is  without  the  timorous  indefiniteness 
of  a  creedless  believer.  He  does  not  disown  a  creed 
because  theologians  have  promulgated  Jew-bound, 
unalterable  articles  of  faitli.  The  Secularist  has  a 
creed  as  definite  as  science,  and  as  flexible  as  pro- 
gress, increasing  as  the  horizon  of  truth  is  enlarged. 
His  creed  is  a  confession  of  his  belief.     There  is  more 


THREE  PRINCIPLES  VINDICA'lED.  43 

unity  of  opinion  among  self-thinkers  than  is  supposed. 
They  all  maintain  the  necessity  of  independent  opin- 
ion, for  they  all  exercise  it.  They  all  believe  in  the 
moral  rightfulness  of  independent  thought,  or  they  are 
guilty  for  propagating  it.  They  all  agree  as  to  the 
right  of  publishing  well-considered  thought,  otherwise 
thinking  would  be  of  little  use.  They  all  approve  of 
free  criticism,  for  there  could  be  no  reliance  on  thought 
which  did  not  use,  or  could  not  bear  that.  All  agree 
as  to  the  equal  action  of  opinion,  without  which  opin- 
ion would  be  fruitless  and  action  a  monopoly.  All 
agree  that  truth  is  the  object  of  free  thought,  for  many 
have  died  to  gain  it.  All  agree  that  scrutiny  is  the 
pathway  to  truth,  for  they  have  all  passed  along  it. 
They  all  attach  importance  to  the  good  of  this  life, 
teaching  this  as  the  first  service  to  humanity.  All  are 
of  one  opinion  as  to  the  efficacy  of  material  means  in 
promoting  human  improvement,  for  they  alone  are 
distinguished  by  vindicating  their  use.  All  hold  that 
morals  are  effectively  commended  by  reason,  for  all 
self-thinkers  have  taught  so.  All  believe  that  God,  if 
he  exists,  is  the  God  of  the  honest,  and  that  he  re- 
spects conscience  more  than  creeds,  for  all  free  think- 
ers have  died  in  this  faith.  Independent  thinkers  from 
Socrates  to  Herbert  Spencer  and  Huxley^  have  all 
agreed  : 

In  the  necessity  of  free  thought. 

1  See  Biographical  Dictionary  of  Free  Thinkers  of  all  Ages  and  Nations,  by 
J.  M.  Wheeler,  and  Four  Hundred  Years  of  Free  Thought  from  Columbus  to 
Ingersoll,  by  Samuel  Porter  Putnam,  containing  upwards  of  1,000  biographies. 


^4  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

In  the  rightfulness  of  it. 

In  the  adequacy  of  it. 

In  the  considerate  pubHcity  of  it. 

In  the  fair  criticism  of  it. 

In  the  equal  action  of  conviction. 

In  the  recognition  of  this  life,  and 

In  the  material  control  of  it. 

The  Secularist,  like  Karpos  the  gardener,  may  say 
of  his  creed,  "  Its  points  are  few  and  simple.  They 
are :  to  be  a  good  citizen,  a  good  husband,  a  good 
father,  and  a  good  workman.  I  go  no  further,"  said 
Karpos,  "but  pray  God  to  take  it  all  in  good  part  and 
have  mercy  on  my  soul."* 

1  Dialogue  between  Karpos  the  gardener  and  Bashiew  Tucton,  by  Voltaire. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


HOW  SECULARISM  AROSE. 

"  We  must  neither  lead  nor  leave  men  to 
mistake  falsehood  for  truth.  Not  to  undeceive 
is  to  deceive." — Archbishop  Whately. 

T)EING  one  of  the  social  missionaries  in  the  propa- 
^  ganda  of  Robert  Owen,  I  was,  like  H.  Viewssiew,  a 
writer  of  those  days,  a  "student  of  realities."  It  soon 
became  clear  to  me,  as  to  others,  that  men  are  much 
influenced  for  good  or  evil,  by  their  environments. 
The  word  was  unused  then,  "circumstances"  was  the 
term  employed.  Then  as  now  there  were  numerous 
persons  everywhere  to  be  met  with  who  explained 
everything  on  supernatural  principles  with  all  the  con- 
fidence of  infinite  knowledge.  Not  having  this  advan- 
tage, I  profited  as  well  as  I  could  by  such  observation 
as  was  in  my  power  to  make.  I  could  see  that  ma- 
terial laws  counted  for  something  in  the  world.  This 
led  me  to  the  conclusion  that  the  duty  of  watching  the 
ways  of  nature  was  incumbent  on  all  who  would  find 
true  conditions  of  human  betterment,  or  new  reasons 
for  morality — both  very  much  needed.  To  this  end 
the.  name  of  Secularism  was  given  to  certain  princi- 


46  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

pies  which  had  for  their  object  human  improvement 
by  material  means,  regarding  science  as  the  provi- 
dence of  man  and  justifying  morality  by  considera- 
tions which  pertain  to  this  life  alone. 

The  rise  and  development  (if  I  may  use  so  fine  a 
term)  of  these  views  may  be  traced  in  the  following 
records. 

1.  "Materialism  will  be  advanced  as  the  only  sound 
basis  of  rational  thought  and  practice."  (Prospectus 
of  the  Movement,  1843,  written  by  me.) 

2.  Five  prizes  awarded  to  me,  for  lectures  to  the 
Manchester  Order  of  Odd-fellows.  These  Degree  Ad- 
dresses (1846)  were  written  on  the  principle  that  mo- 
rality, apart  from  theology,  could  be  based  on  human 
reason  and  experience. 

3.  The  Reasoner  restricts  itself  to  the  known,  to 
the  present,  and  seeks  to  realise  the  life  that  is.  (Pref- 
ace to  the  Reasoner,  1846.) 

4.  A  series  of  papers  was  commenced  in  the  i?^a- 
j^;«^r  entitled  "The  Moral  Remains  of  the  Bible,"  one 
object  of  which  was  to  show  that  those  who  no  longer 
held  the  Bible  as  an  infallible  book,  might  still  value 
it  wherein  it  was  ethically  excellent.  {Reasoner,  Vol. 
v.,  No.  106,  p.  17,  1848.) 

5.  "  To  teach  men  to  see  that  the  sum  of  all  knowl- 
edge and  duty  is  Secular  and  that  it  pertains  to  this 
world  alone."  {Reasoner,  Nov.  19,  1851.  Article, 
"Truths  to  Teach,"  p.  i. 

This  was  the  first  time  the  word  "Secular  "was 


HOiy  SECULARISM  AKOSE.  47 

applied  as  a  general  test  of  principles  of  conduct  apart 
from  spiritual  considerations. 

6.  "  Giving  an  account  of  ourselves  in  the  whole 
extent  of  opinion,  we  should  use  the  word  Secularist 
as  best  indicating  that  province  of  human  duty  which 
belongs  to  this  life."     {Reasoner,  Dec.  3,  1851,  p.  34. 

This  was  the  first  time  the  word  "Secularist"  ap- 
peared in  literature  as  descriptive  of  a  new  way  of 
thinking. 

7.  "  Mr.  Holyoake,  editor  of  the  Reasoner,  will  lay 
before  the  meeting  [then  proposed]  the  present  posi- 
tion of  Secularism  in  the  provinces."  {Reasoner,  Dec, 
10,  1851,  p.  62.) 

This  was  the  first  time  the  word  "Secularism  "  ap- 
peared in  the  press. 

The  meeting  above  mentioned  was  held  December 
29,  1851,  at  which  the  statement  made  might  betaken 
as  an  epitome  of  this  book.  (See  Reasoner,  No.  294, 
Vol.  12,  p.  129.      1852.) 

8.  A  letter  on  the  "Future  of  Secularism"  ap- 
peared in  the  Reasoner.  {Reasoner,  Feb.  4,  1852,  p. 
187.) 

This  was  the  first  time  Secularism  was  written  upon 
as  a  movement.  The  term  was  the  heading  of  a  letter 
by  Charles  Frederick  NichoUs. 

9.  "One  public  purpose  is  to  obtain  the  repeal  of 
all  acts  of  Parliament  which  interfere  with  Secular 
practice."  (Article,  "Nature  of  Secular  Societies," 
Reasoner,  No.  325,  p.  146,  Aug.  18,  1852.) 


43  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

This  is  exactly  the  attitude  Secularism  takes  with 
regard  to  the  Bible  and  to  Christianity.  It  rejects 
such  parts  of  the  Scriptures,  or  of  Christianism,  or 
Acts  of  Parliament,  as  conflict  with  or  obstruct  ethical 
truth.  We  do  not  seek  the  repeal  of  all  Acts  of  Parlia- 
ment, but  only  of  such  as  interfere  with  Secular  pro- 
gress. 

lo.  "The  friends  of  *  Secular  Education ' [the  Man- 
chester Association  was  then  so  known]  are  not  Secu- 
larists. They  do  not  pretend  to  be  so,  they  do  not 
even  wish  to  be  so  regarded,  they  merely  use  the  word 
Secular  as  an  adjective,  as  applied  to  a  mode  of  in- 
struction. We  apply  it  to  the  nature  of  all  knowledge. " 
We  use  the  noun  Secularism.  No  one  else  has  done 
it.  With  others  the  term  Secular  is  merely  a  descrip- 
tive ;  with  us  the  term  is  used  as  a  subject.  With 
others  it  is  a  branch  of  knowledge ;  with  us  it  is  the 
primary  business  of  life, — the  name  of  the  province  of 
speculation  to  which  we  confine  ourselves.^  When  so 
used  in  these  pages  the  word  "Secularism"  or  "Sec- 
ularist" is  employed  to  mark  the  distinction. 

A  Bolton  clergyman  reported  in  the  Bolton  Guard- 
ian that  Mr.  Holyoake  had  announced  as  the  first  sub- 
ject of  his  Lectures,  "Why  do  the  Clergy  Avoid  Dis- 
cussion and  the  Secularists  Seek  it?  "  {Reasoner,  No. 
328,  p.  294,  Vol.  12,  1852. 

These  citations  from  my  own  writings  are  sufficient 


iSee  article  "The  Seculars — the  Propriety  of  Their  Name,"  by  G.J. 
Holyoake.    Reasoner,  p.  177,  Sep.  i,  1852. 


HOW  SECULARISM  AROSE.  49 

to  show  the  origin  and  nature  of  Secularism.  Such 
views  were  widely  accepted  by  liberal  thinkers  of  the 
day,  as  an  improvement  and  extension  of  free  thought 
advocacy.  Societies  were  formed,  halls  were  given  a 
Secular  name,  and  conferences  were  held  to  organise 
adherents  of  the  new  opinion.  The  first  was  held  in 
the  Secular  Institute,  Manchester  (Oct.  3,  1852).  Del- 
egates were  sent  from  Societies  in  Ashton-under-Lyne, 
Bolton,  Blackburn,  Bradford,  Burnley,  Bury,  Glas- 
gow, Keighley,  Leigh,  London,  Manchester,  Miles 
Platting,  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  Oldham,  Over  Darwen, 
Owen's  Journal,  Paisley,  Preston,  Rochdale,  Stafford, 
Sheffield,  Stockport,  Todmorden. 

Among  the  delegates  were  many  well  known,  long 
known,  and  some  still  known — James  Charlton  (now 
the  famous  manager  of  the  Chicago  and  Alton  Rail- 
way), Abram  Greenwood  (now  the  cashier  of  the  Co- 
operative Wholesale  Bank  of  Manchester),  William 
Mallalieu  of  Todmorden  (familiarly  known  as  the 
**  Millionaire "  of  the  original  Rochdale  Pioneers), 
Dr.  Hiram  Uttley  of  Burnley,  John  Crank  of  Stock- 
port, Thomas  Hayes,  then  of  Miles  Platting,  now 
manager  of  the  Crumpsall  Biscuit  Works  of  the  Co- 
operative Wholesale  Society,  Joseph  Place  of  Notting- 
ham, James  Motherwell  of  Paisley,  Dr.  Henry  Travis 
(socialist  writer  on  Owen's  system),  Samuel  Ingham 
of  Manchester,  J.  R.  Cooper  of  Manchester,  and  the 
present  writer. 


CHAPTER  X. 


HOW  SECULARISM  WAS  DIFFUSED. 

•'Only  by  varied  iteration  can  alien  con- 
ceptions be  forced  on  reluctant  minds." 

— Herbert  Spencer, 

IN  1853  the  Six-Night  Discussion  took  place  in 
Cowper  Street  School  Rooms,  London,  with  the 
Rev.  Brewin  Grant,  B.  A.  A  report  was  published  by 
Partridge  and  Oakley  at  2s.  6d  ,  of  which  45,900  were 
sold,  which  widely  diffused  a  knowledge  of  Secularis- 
tic  views.  Our  adversary  had  been  appointed  with 
clerical  ceremony,  on  a  "Three  years'  mission"  against 
us.  He  had  wit,  readiness,  and  an  electric  velocity  of 
speech,  boasting  that  he  could  speak  three  times  faster 
than  any  one  else.  But  he  proved  to  be  of  use  to  us 
without  intending  it, 

' '  His  acrid  words 
Turned  the  sweet  milk  of  kindness  into  curds." 

whereby  he  set  many  against  the  cause  he  represented. 
He  had  the  cleverness  to  see  that  there  ought  to  be  a 
"Christian  Secularism,"  which  raised  Secularism  to 
the  level  of  Christian  curiosity.  In  Glasgow,  in  1854, 
I  met  Mr.  Grant  again  during  several  nights'  discus- 


HOIV  SECULARISM  WAS  DIFFUSED.  51 

sion  in  the  City  Hall.  This  debate  also  was  published, 
as  was  one  of  three  nights  with  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Ruther- 
ford (afterwards  Dr.  Rutherford)  in  Newcastle  on 
Tyne,  who  aimed  to  prove  that  Christianity  contained 
the  better  Secularism.  Thus  that  new  form  of  free 
thought  came  to  have  public  recognition. 

The  lease  of  a  house,  147  Fleet  Street,  was  bought 
(1852),  where  was  established  a  Secular  Institute,  con- 
nected with  printing,  book-selling,  and  liberal  pub- 
lishing. Further  conferences  were  held  in  July,  1854, 
one  at  Stockport.  At  an  adjourned  conference  Mr. 
Joseph  Barker  (whom  we  had  converted)  presided.^ 
We  had  a  London  Secular  Society  which  met  at  the 
Hall  of  Science,  City  Road,  and  held  its  Council  meet- 
ings in  Mr.  Le  Blond's  handsome  house  in  London 
Wall.  This  work,  and  much  more,  was  done  before 
and  while  Mr.  Bradlaugh  (who  afterwards  was  con- 
spicuously identified  with  the  movement)  was  in  the 
army. 

It  was  in  1854  that  I  published  the  first  pamphlet 
on  Secularism  the  Practical  Philosophy  of  the  People.  It 
commenced  by  showing  the  necessity  of  independent, 
self-helping,  self-extricating  opinions.  Its  opening 
passage  was  as  follows : 

"In  a  state  of  society  in  which  every  inch  of  land, 
every  blade  of  grass,  every  spray  of  water,  every  bird 
and  flower  has  an  owner,  what  has  the  poor  man  to 
do  with  orthodox  religion  which  begins  by  proclaim- 

\Reasoner,  No.  428,  Vol.  XVII.,  p.  87. 


Sa 


ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 


ing  him  a  miserable  sinner,  and  ends  by  leaving  him 
a  miserable  slave,  as  far  as  unrequited  toil  goes  ? 

"The  poor  man  finds  himself  in  an  armed  world 
where  might  is  God,  and  poverty  is  fettered.  Abroad 
the  hired  soldier  blocks  up  the  path  of  freedom,  and 
the  priest  the  path  of  progress.  Every  penniless  man, 
woman,  and  child  is  virtually  the  property  of  the  cap- 
italist, no  less  in  England  than  is  the  slave  in  New 
Orleans.  1  Society  blockades  poverty,  leaving  it  scarce 
escape.  The  artisan  is  engaged  in  an  imminent  strug- 
gle against  wrong  and  injustice ;  then  what  has  he 
the  struggler,  to  do  with  doctrines  which  brand  him 
with  inherited  guilt,  which  paralyse  him  by  an  arbit- 
rary faith,  which  deny  saving  power  to  good  works, 
which  menace  him  with  eternal  perdition?" 

The  two  first  works  of  importance,  controverting 
Secularist  principles,  were  by  the  Rev.  Joseph  Parker 
and  Dr.  J.  A.  Langford;  Dr.  Parker  was  ingenious, 
Dr.  Langford  eloquent.  I  had  discussed  with  Dr. 
Parker  in  Banbury.  In  his  Six  Chapters  on  Secularism'^ 
which  was  the  title  of  his  book,  he  makes  pleasant 
references  to  that  debate.  The  Christian  Weekly  News 
of  that  day  said:  "These  Six  Chapters  have  been 
written  by  a  young  provincial  minister  of  great  power 
and  promise,  of  whom  the  world  has  not  yet  heard, 
but  of  whom  it  will  hear  pleasing  things  some  day." 


1  Not  entirely  so.    The  English  slave  can  run  away — at  his  own  peril, 
t  Published  by  my,  then,  neighbour,  William  Freeman,  of  69  Fleet  Street, 
himself  an  energetic,  pleasant-minded  Christian. 


//OIV  SECULARISM  WAS  DIFFUSED.  53 

This  prediction  has  come  true.  I  had  told  Mr.  Free- 
man that  the  "young  preacher"  had  given  me  that 
impression  in  the  discussion  with  him.  Dr.  Parker 
said  in  his  first  Chapter  that,  "If  the  New  Testament 
teachings  oppose  our  own  consciousness,  violate  our 
moral  sense,  lead  us  out  of  sympathy  with  humanity, 
then  we  shall  abandon  them."  This  was  exactly  the 
case  of  Secularism  which  he  undertook  to  confute. 
Dr.  Langford  held  a  more  rational  religion  than  Dr. 
Parker.  His  Answer,  which  reached  a  "second  thou- 
sand, had  passages  of  courtesy  and  friendship,  yet  he 
contended  with  graceful  vigor  against  opinions — three- 
fourths  of  which  justified  his  own. 

In  an  address  delivered  Sept.  29,  1851,  I  had  said 
that,  "There  were  three  classes  of  persons  opposed 
to  Christianity : — 

"I.  The  dissolute. 

"2.   The  indifferent. 

"3.   The  intellectually  independent. 

"The  dissolute  are  against  Christianity  because 
they  regard  it  as  a  foe  to  sensuality.  The  indifferent 
reject  it  through  being  ignorant  of  it,  or  not  having 
time  to  attend  to  it,  or  not  caring  to  attend  to  it,  or 
not  being  able  to  attend  to  it,  through  constitutional 
insensibility  to  its  appeals.  The  intellectually  inde- 
pendent avoid  it  as  opposed  to  freedom,  morality  and 
progress."  It  was  to  these  classes,  and  not  to  Chris- 
tians, that  Secularism  was  addressed.  Neither  Dr. 
Parker  nor  Dr.  Langford  took  notice  that  it  was  in- 


54  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

tended  to  furnish  ethical  guidance  where  Christianity, 
whatever  might  be  its  quality,  or  pretensions,  or  merit, 
was  inoperative.^ 

The  new  form  of  free  thought  under  the  title  of  the 
** Principles  of  Secularism"  was  submitted  to  John 
Stuart  Mill,  to  whose  friendship  and  criticism  I  had 
often  been  indebted,  and  he  approved  the  statement 
as  one  likely  to  be  useful  to  those  outside  the  pale  of 
Christianity. 

A  remarkable  thing  occurred  in  1854.  A  prize  of 
j^ioo  was  offered  by  the  Evangelical  Alliance  for  the 
best  book  on  the  "Aspects,  Causes,  and  Agencies"  of 
what  they  called  by  the  odious  apostolic  defamatory 
name  of  "  Infidelity."^  The  Rev.  Thomas  Pearson  of 
Eyemouth  won  the  prize  by  a  brilliant  book,  which  I 
praised  for  its  many  relevant  quotations,  its  instruc- 
tion and  fairness,  but  I  represented  that  its  price  (los. 
6d.)  prevented  numerous  humble  readers  from  pos- 
sessing it.  The  Evangelical  Alliance  inferred  that  the 
"relevancy"  was  on  their  side,  altogether,  whereas  I 
meant  relevant  to  the  argument  and  to  those  supposed 
to  be  confuted  by  it.  They  resolved  to  issue  twenty- 
thousand  copies  at  one  shilling  a  volume.  The  most 
eminent  Evangelical  ministers  and  congregations  of  the 

1  In  1857  Dr.  Joseph  Parker  published  a  maturer  and  more  important  vol- 
ume, Helps  to  Truth  Seekers,  or,  Christianity  and  Scepticism,  containing  "The 
Secularist  Theory — A  Critique."  At  a  distance  of  more  than  thirty-five 
years  it  seems  to  tne  an  abler  book,  from  the  Christian  point  of  view,  than  I 
thought  it  on  its  appearance. 

2  A  term  of  intentional  o£fence  as  here  used.  Infidelity  means  treachery 
to  the  truth,  whereas  the  heretic  has  often  sacrificed  bis  life  from  fidelity 
toil. 


JJOIV  SECULARISM  WAS  DIFFUSED.  55 

day  subscribed  to  the  project.  Four  persons  put  down 
their  names  for  one  thousand  copies  each,  and  a  strong 
list  of  subscribers  was  sent  out.  Unfortunately  I  pub- 
lished another  article  intending  to  induce  readers  of  the 
Reasoner  to  procure  copies,  as  they  would  find  in  its  can- 
did pages  a  wealth  of  quotations  of  free-thought  opin- 
ion with  which  very  few  were  acquainted.  The  number 
of  eminent  writers,  dissentients  from  Christianity,  and 
the  force  and  felicity  of  their  objections  to  it,  as  cited 
by  Mr.  Pearson,  would  astonish  and  instruct  Chris- 
tians who  were  quite  unfamiliar  with  the  historic  litera- 
ture of  heretical  thought.  This  unwise  article  stopped 
the  project.  The  "Shilling  Edition"  never  appeared, 
and  the  public  lost  the  most  useful  and  informing  book 
written  against  us  in  my  time.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Pearson 
died  not  long  after  ;  all  too  soon,  for  he  was  a  minister 
who  commanded  respect.  He  had  research,  good 
faith,  candor,  and  courtesy,  qualities  rare  in  his  day. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


SECULAR    INSTRUCTION    DISTINCT    FROM 
SECULARISM. 

"A  mariner  must  have  his  eye  on  the  rock 
and  the  sand  as  well  as  upon  the  North  Star." 
— Maxitn  of  the  Sea. 

IT  IS  time  now  to  point  out,  what  many  never  seem 
to  understand,  that  Secular  instruction  is  entirely 
distinct  from  Secularism.  In  my  earlier  days  the  term 
** scientific"  was  the  distressing  word  in  connexion 
with  education,  but  the  trouble  of  later  years  is  with 
the  word  "Secular."  Theological  critics  run  on  the 
"rock"  there. 

Many  persons  regard  Secular  teaching  with  dis- 
trust, thinking  it  to  be  the  same  as  Secularism.  Sec- 
ular instruction  is  known  by  the  sign  of  separateness. 
It  means  knowledge  given  apart  from  theology.  Sec- 
ular instruction  comprises  a  set  of  rules  for  the  guid- 
ance of  industry,  commerce,  science,  and  art.  Secular 
teaching  is  as  distinct  from  theology  as  a  poem  from  a 
sermon.  A  man  may  be  a  mathematician,  an  archi- 
tect,  a  lawyer,   a  musician,   or  a  surgeon,  and  be  a 


SECULAR  INSTRUCTION.  57 

Christian  all  the  same  ;  as  Faraday  was  both  a  chem- 
ist and  a  devout  Sandemanian ;  as  Buckland  was  a 
geologist  as  well  as  a  Dean.  But  if  theology  be  mixed 
up  with  professional  knowledge,  there  will  be  muddle- 
headedness.^  At  a  separate  time,  theology  can  be 
taught,  and  any  learner  will  have  a  clearer  and  more 
commanding  knowledge  of  Christianity  by  its  being 
distinctive  in  his  mind.  Secular  instruction  neither 
assails  Christianity  nor  prejudices  the  learner  against 
it;  anymore  than  sculpture  assails  jurisprudence,  or 
than  geometry  prejudices  the  mind  against  music.  If 
the  Secular  instructor  made  it  a  point,  as  he  ought  to 
do,  to  inculcate  elementary  ideas  of  morality,  he  would 
confine  himself  to  explaining  how  far  truth  and  duty 
have  sanctions  in  considerations  purely  human — leav- 
ing it  to  teachers  of  religion  to  supplement  at  another 
time  and  place,  what  they  believe  to  be  further  and 
higher  sanctions. 

Secular  instruction  implies  that  the  proper  busi- 
ness of  the  school-teacher  is  to  impart  a  knowledge  of 
the  duties  of  this  world ;  and  the  proper  business  of 
chapel  and  church  is  to  explain  the  duties  relevant 
to  another  world,  which  can  only  be  done  in  a  second- 
hand way  by  the  school-teacher.  The  wonder  is  that 
the  pride  of  the  minister  does  not  incite  him  to  keep 
his  own  proper  work  in  his  own  hands,  and  protest 

1  Edward  Baines  (afterwards  Sir  Edward)  was  the  ^i  eatest  opponent  in 
his  day,  of  national  schools  and  Secular  instruction,  sent  his  son  to  a  Secular 
school,  because  he  wanted  him  to  be  clever  as  well  as  Christian.  He  was 
both  as  I  well  know. 


58  ENGLISH  SECULARISM, 

against  the  school-teacher  meddling  with  it.  By  doing 
so  he  would  augment  his  own  dignity  and  the  distinc- 
tiveness of  his  office. 

By  keeping  each  kind  of  knowledge  apart,  a  man 
learns  both,  more  easily  and  more  effectually.  Secu- 
lur  training  is  better  for  the  scholar  and  safer  for  the 
State ;  and  better  for  the  priest  if  he  has  a  faith  that 
can  stand  by  itself. 

If  the  reader  does  not  distrust  it  as  a  paradox,  he 
will  assent  that  the  Secular  is  distinct  from  Secularism, 
as  distinct  as  an  act  is  distinct  from  its  motive.  Secu- 
lar teaching  comprises  a  set  of  rules  of  instruction  in 
trade,  business,  and  professional  knowledge.  Secular- 
ism furnishes  a  set  of  principles  for  the  ethical  con- 
duct of  life.  Secular  instruction  is  far  more  limited  in 
its  range  than  Secularism  which  defends  secular  pur- 
suits against  theology,  where  theology  attacks  them 
or  obstructs  them.  But  pure  Secular  knowledge  is 
confined  to  its  own  pursuit,  and  does  not  come  in  con- 
tact with  theology  any  more  than  architecture  comes 
in  contact  with  preaching. 

A  man  may  be  a  shareholder  in  a  gas  company  or 
a  waterworks,  a  house  owner,  a  landlord,  a  farmer,  or 
a  workman.  All  these  are  secular  pursuits,  and  he 
who  follows  them  may  consult  only  his  own  interest. 
But  if  he  be  a  Secularist,  he  will  consider  not  only  his 
own  interest,  but,  as  far  as  he  can,  the  welfare  of  the 
community  or  the  world,  as  his  action  or  example  may 
tell  for  the  good  of  universal  society.  He  will  do  "his 


SECULAR  INSTRUCTJO.V.  59 

best,"  not  as  Mr.  Ruskin  says,  '*the  best  of  an  ass," 
but  "the  best  of  an  intelligent  man."  In  every  act  he 
will  put  his  conscience  and  character  with  a  view  so 
to  discharge  the  duties  of  this  life  as  to  merit  another, 
if  there  be  one.  Just  as  a  Christian  seeks  to  serve 
God,  a  Secularist  seeks  to  serve  man.  This  it  is  to  be 
a  Secularist.  The  idea  of  this  service  is  what  Secular- 
ism puts  into  his  mind.  Professor  Clifford  exclaimed  : 
"The  Kingdom  of  God  has  come — when  comes  the 
Kingdom  of  man  ?  A  Secularist  is  one  who  hastens 
the  coming  of  this  kingdom  :  which  must  be  agreeable 
to  heaven  if  the  people  of  this  world  are  to  occupy  the 
mansions  there. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


THE  DISTINCTIVENESS  MADE  FURTHER  EVIDENT. 

"The  cry  that  so-called  secular  education 
is  Atheistic  is  hardly  worth  notice.  Cricket  is 
not  theolo|;ical ;  at  the  same  time,  it  is  not 
Atheistic."— ^«w.  Joseph  Parker,  D.  D.,  Times, 
October  iz,  1894. 

ATOR  is  Secularism  atheism.  The  laws  of  the  uni- 
^  ^  verse  are  quite  distinct  from  the  question  of  the 
origin  of  the  universe.  The  study  of  the  laws  of  nature, 
which  Secularism  selects,  is  quite  different  from  spec- 
ulation as  to  the  authorship  of  nature.  We  may  judge 
and  prize  the  beauty  and  uses  of  an  ancient  edifice, 
though  we  may  never  know  the  builder.  Secularism 
is  a  form  of  opinion  which  concerns  itself  only  with 
questions  the  issues  of  which  can  be  tested  by  the  ex- 
perience of  this  life.  It  is  clear  that  the  existence  of 
deity  and  the  actuality  of  another  life,  are  questions 
excluded  from  Secularism,  which  exacts  no  denial  of 
deity  or  immortality,  from  members  of  Secularist  so- 
cieties. During  their  day  only  two  persons  of  public 
distinction — the  Bishop  of  Peterborough  and  Charles 
Bradlaugh — maintained  that  the  Secular  was  athe- 
istic.    Yet  Mr.  Bradlaugh  never  put  a  profession  of 


THE  DISTINCTIVENESS  MADE  EVIDENT.        6i 

atheism  as  one  of  the  tenets  of  any  Secularist  Society. 
Atheism  may  be  a  personal  tenet,  but  it  cannot  be  a 
Secularist  tenet,  from  which  it  is  wholly  disconnected. 

No  one  would  confuse  the  Secular  with  the  atheistic 
who  understood  that  the  Secular  is  separate.  Mr. 
Hodgson  Pratt,  a  Christian,  writing  in  Concord  (Octo- 
ber, 1894),  a  description  of  the  burial  of  Angelo  Maz- 
zoleni,  said  "the  funeral  was  entirely  Secular,"  mean- 
ing the  ceremony  was  distinct  from  that  of  the  Church, 
being  based  on  considerations  pertaining  to  duty  in 
this  world. 

In  the  indefiniteness  of  colloquial  speech  we  con- 
stantly hear  the  phrase,  "School  Board  education." 
Yet  School  Boards  cannot  give  education.  It  is  be- 
yond their  reach.  Most  persons  confuse  instruction 
with  education.  Instruction  relates  to  industrial,  com- 
mercial, agricultural,  and  scientific  knowledge  and  like 
subjects.  Education  implies  the  complete  training 
and  "drawing  out  of  the  whole  powers  of  the  mind."^ 
Thus  instruction  is  different  from  education.  Instruc- 
tion is  departmental  knowledge.  Education  includes 
all  the  influences  of  life ;  instruction  gives  skill,  edu- 
cation forms  character. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Parker  is  the  first  Nonconformist 
preacher  of  distinction  who  has  avowed  his  concur- 
rence with  Secular  instruction  in  Board  Schools.  When 
Mr.  W.  E.  Forster  was  framing  his  Education  Act,  I 

.  1  Henry  Drummond  gave  this  definition  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  it 
was  adopted  by  W.  J.  Fox  and  other  leaders  of  opinion  in  that  day. 


63  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

besought  him  to  raise  English  educational  policy  to 
the  level  of  the  much  smoking,  much-pondering  Dutch. 
"  The  system  of  education  in  Holland  dates  from  1857. 
It  is  a  Secular  system,  meaning  by  Secular  that  the 
Bible  is  not  allowed  to  be  read  in  schools,  nor  is  any 
religious  instruction  allowed  to  be  given.  The  use  of 
the  school-room  is,  however,  granted  to  ministers  of  all 
denominations  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  religion  out 
of  school-hours.  The  schoolmaster  is  not  allowed  to 
give  religious  instruction,  or  even  to  read  the  Bible  in 
school  at  any  time."^  No  State  rears  better  citizens  or 
better  Christians  than  the  Dutch.  Mr.  Gladstone, 
with  his  customary  discernment,  has  said  that  "Sec- 
ular instruction  does  not  involve  denial  of  religious 
teaching,  but  merely  separation  in  point  of  time."  It 
seems  incredible  that  Christian  ministers,  generally, 
do  not  see  the  advantage  of  this.  I  should  probably 
have  become  a  Christian  preacher  myself,  had  it  not 
been  for  the  incessantness  with  which  religion  was  ob- 
truded on  me  in  childhood  and  youth.  Even  now  my 
mind  aches  when  I  think  of  it.  For  myself,  I  respect 
the  individuality  of  piety.  It  is  always  picturesque. 
Looking  at  religion  from  the  outside,  I  can  see  that 
concrete  sectarianism  is  a  source  of  religious  strength. 
A  man  is  only  master  of  his  own  faith  when  he  sees  it 
clearly,  distinctly,  and  separately.  Rather  than  per- 
mit Secular  instruction  and  religious  education  to  be 

1  Report  from  the  Hague,  by  Mr.  (now  Right  Hon.)  Jesse  Collings,  M.  P., 
May,  187a 


THE  DISTINCTIVENESS  MADE  EVIDENT.        63 

imparted  separately,  Christian  ministers  permit  the 
great  doctrines  they  profess  to  maintain  to  be  whittled 
down  to  a  School  Board  average,  in  which,  when  done 
honestly  towards  all  opinions,  no  man  can  discern 
Christianity  without  the  aid  of  a  microscope.  And  this 
passes,  in  these  days,  for  good  ecclesiastical  policy. 
In  a  recent  letter  (November,  1894)  Mr.  Gladstone 
has  re-affirmed  his  objection  to  "an  undenominational 
system  of  religion  framed  by,  or  under  the  authority 
of,  the  State."  He  says  :  "It  would,  I  think,  be  better 
for  the  State  to  limit  itself  to  giving  Secular  instruc- 
tion, which,  of  course,  is  no  complete  education."  Mr. 
Gladstone  does  not  confound  Secular  instruction  with 
'education,  but  is  of  the  way  of  thinking  of  Miltou, 
who  says:  "I  call  a  complete  and  generous  education 
that  which  fits  a  man  to  perform  justly^  skilfully,  and 
magnanimously  all  the  offices,  both  private  and  pub- 
lic, of  peace  and  war."  Secular  instruction  touches 
no  doctrine,  menaces  no  creed,  raises  no  scepticism  in 
the  mind.  But  an  average  of  belief  introduces  the 
aggressive  hand  of  heresy  into  every  school,  tampering 
with  tenets  rooted  in  the  conscience,  wantonly  alarm- 
ing religious  convictions,  and  substituting  for  a  clear, 
frank,  and  manly  issue  a  disastrous,  blind,  and  timid 
policy,  wriggling  along  like  a  serpent  instead  of  walk- 
ing with  self-dependent  erectness.  This  manly  erect- 
ness  would  be  the  rule  were  the  formula  of  the  great 
preacher  accepted  who  has  said:  "Secular  education 
by  the  State,  and  Christian  education  by  the  Chris- 


64  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

tian  Church  is  my  motto.  "^  Uniformity  of  truth  is  de- 
sirable, and  it  will  come,  not  by  contrivance,  but  by 
conviction. 

Some  one  quoted  lately  in  the  Daily  News  (Sep- 
tember 19,  1895)  the  following  sentences  I  wrote  in 
1870: 

"With  secular  instruction  only  in  the  day  school,  religion 
will  acquire  freshness  and  new  force.  The  clergyman  and  the 
minister  will  exercise  a  new  influence,  because  their  ministrations 
will  have  dignity  and  definiteness.  They  will  no  longer  delegate 
things  declared  by  them  to  be  sacred  to  be  taught  second-hand  by 
the  harassed,  overworked,  and  oft-reluctant  schoolmaster  and 
schoolmistress,  who  must  contradict  the  gentleness  of  religion  by 
the  peremptoriness  of  the  pedagogue,  and  efface  the  precept  that 
'  God  is  love '  by  an  incontinent  application  of  the  birch.  ...  It  is 
not  secular  instruction  which  breeds  irreverence,  but  this  ill-timed 
familiarity  with  the  reputed  things  of  God  which  robs  divinity  of 
its  divineness." 

The  Bible  in  the  school-room  will  not  always  be  to 
the  advantage  of  clericalism,  as  it  is  thought  to  be 
now. 

Mr.  Forster's  Education  Act  created  what  Mr. 
Disraeli  contemptuously  described  as  a  new  "sacer- 
dotal caste," — a  body  of  second-hand  preachers,  who 
are  to  be  paid  by  the  money  of  the  State  to  do  the 
work  which  the  minister  and  the  clergyman  avow  they 
are  called  by  heaven  to  perform, — namely,  to  save 
the  souls  of  the  people.  According  to  this  Act,  the 
clergy  are  really  no  longer  necessary ;  their  work  can 

1  The  Rev.  Joseph  Parker,  D.  D. 


THE  DISTINCTIVENESS  MADE  EVIDENT.         65 

be  done  by  a  commoner  and  cheaper  order  of  artificer. 
Mr.  Forster  insisted  that  the  Bible  be  introduced  into 
the  school-room,  which  gives  great  advantage  to  the 
Freethinker,  as  it  makes  a  critical  agitation  against 
its  character  and  pretensions  a  matter  of  self-defence 
for  every  family.  Another  eminent  preacher,  Mr.  C. 
H.  Spurgeon,  wrote,  not  openly  in  the  Times  as  Dr. 
Parker  did,  but  in  The  Sword  and  Trowel  thus :  "We 
should  like  to  see  established  a  system  of  universal 
application,  which  would  give  a  sound  Secular  educa- 
tion to  children,  and  leave  the  religious  training  to 
the  home  and  the  agencies  of  the  Church  of  Christ." 
It  is  worthy  of  the  radiant  common  sense  of  the  fa- 
mous orator  of  the  Tabernacle  that  he  should  have 
said  this  anywhere. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


SELF-DEFENSIVE  FOR  THE  PEOPLE. 

"What  suits  the  gods  above 
Only  the  gods  can  know ; 
What  we  want  is  This  World's  sense 
How  to  live  below." 

BY  its  nature,  Secularism  is  tolerant  with  regard  to 
religions.  I  once  drew  up  a  code  of  rules  for  an 
atheistic  school.  One  rule  was  that  the  children  should 
be  taught  the  tenets  of  the  Christian,  Catholic,  Mos- 
lem, Jewish,  and  the  leading  theological  systems  of 
the  world,  as  well  as  Secularistic  and  atheistic  forms 
of  thought ;  so  that  when  the  pupil  came  to  years  of 
discretion  he  might  be  able,  intelligently,  to  choose  a 
faith  for  himself.  Less  than  this  would  be  a  fraud 
upon  the  understanding  of  a  man.  In  matters  wiiich 
concern  himself  alone,  he  must  be  free  to  choose  for 
himself,  and  know  what  he  is  choosing  from.  That 
form  of  belief  which  has  misgivings  as  to  whether  it 
can  stand  by  itself,  is  to  be  distrusted. 

It  is  the  scandal  of  Christianity  that,  for  twenty- 
five  years,  it  has  paralysed  School  Board  instruction 
by  its  discord  of  opinion  as  to  the  religious  tenets  to 


SELF-DEFENSIVE  FOR  THE  PEOPLE.  67 

be  imparted  ;  while  in  Secularity  there  is  no  disunity. 
Everybody  is  agreed  upon  the  rules  of  arithmetic.  The 
laws  of  grammar  command  general  assent.  There  are 
no  rival  schools  upon  the  interpretation  of  geometrical 
problems.  It  is  only  in  divinity  that  irreconcilable 
diversity  exists.  When  Secular  instruction  is  con- 
ceded, denominational  differences  will  be  respected, 
as  aspects  of  the  integrity  of  conscience,  which  no 
longer  obstruct  the  intellectual  progress  of  the  peo- 
ple. 

But  there  are  graver  issues  than  the  pride  and  pref- 
erence of  the  preacher;  namely,  the  welfare  of  the 
children  of  the  people.  What  the  working  classes  want 
is  an  industrial  education.  Poverty  is  a  battle,  and 
the  poor  are  always  in  a  conflict — a  conflict-in  which 
the  most  ignorant  ever  go  to  the  wall.  The  accepted 
policy  of  the  State  leaves  the  increase  of  population  to 
chance.  It  suffers  none  to  be  killed  ;  it  compels  people 
to  be  kept  alive,  and  abandons  their  subsistence  to  the 
accident  of  capitalists  requiring  to  hire  their  services. 
Thus  our  great  towns  are  crowded  with  families,  im- 
pelled there  by  the  wild  forces  of  hunger  and  of  pas- 
sion. From  the  workingman  thus  situated,  the  gov- 
erning class  exacts  four  duties  : 

1.  That  he  shall  give  the  parish  no  disquietude  by 
asking  it  to  maintain  his  family. 

2.  That  he  shall  pay  whatever  taxes  are  leyied 
upon  him. 

3.  That  he  shall  give  no  trouble  to  the  police. 


68  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

4.  That  he  shall  fight  generally  whomsoever  the 
Government  may  see  fit  to  involve  the  nation  in  war 
with. 

Whatever  knowledge  is  necessary  to  enable  the 
future  workman  to  do  these  things,  is  his  right,  and 
should  be  given  to  him  in  his  youth  in  the  speediest 
manner  ;  and  any  other  inculcation  which  shall  delay 
this  knowledge  on  its  way,  or  confuse  the  learner  in 
acquiring  it,  is  a  cruelty  to  him  and  a  peril  to  the  com- 
munity which  permits  it ;  and  the  State,  were  it  dis- 
cerning and  just,  would  forbid  it. 

In  April,  1870,  in  a  letter  which  appeared  in  the 
Spectator y  I  wrote  as  follows  : 

"In  the  speech  of  the  Bishop  of  Peterborough,  delivered  at 
the  Educational  Conference  at  Leicester,  and  published  in  a  sep- 
arate form  by  the  National  Education  Union,  his  Lordship  quotes 
from  a  recent  letter  of  mine  to  the  Daily  News  some  words  in 
which  I  explained  that  '  unsectarian  education  amounts  to  a  new 
species  of  parliamentary  piety.'  It  is  a  satisfaction  to  find  that  the 
Bishop  of  Peterborough  is  able  to  *  entirely  endorse  these  words. ' 
The  Bishop  asks :  '  Whose  words  do  you  suppose  they  are  ?  They 
are  the  words  of  that  reactionary  maintainer  of  creeds  and  dogmas 
— Mr.  Holyoake. '  So  far  from  being  a  '  reactionary '  in  this  mat- 
ter, I  have  always  maintained  that  every  form  of  sincere  opinion, 
religious  or  secular,  should  have  free  play  and  fair  play.  I  have 
never  varied  in  advocating  the  right  of  free  utterance  and  free  ac- 
tion of  all  earnest  conviction.  The  State  requires  a  self-support- 
ing and  tax-paying  population.  But  the  State  cannot  insure  this, 
except  by  imparting  productive  knowledge  to  the  people.  It  is 
necessary  for  the  people  to  receive,  it  is  the  interest  of  the  State  to 
give,  productive  instruction  in  national  schools." 


SELF-DEFENSIVE  FOR  THE  PEOPLE.  69 

If  people  realised  how  much  extended  secular  in- 
struction is  needed,  they  would  be  impatient  with  the 
obstruction  of  it  by  contending  sects.  Children  want 
industrial  education  to  fit  them  for  emigrants.  A 
knowledge  of  soils,  of  cattle,  of  climate,  and  crops, 
and  how  to  nail  up  a  wigwam  and  grow  pork  and 
corn,  is  what  they  need.  For  want  of  such  knowledge 
Clerkenwell  watchmakers,  Northampton  shoemakers, 
Lancashire  weavers,  and  Durham  miners  perish  as 
emigrants,  and  their  bones  bleach  the  prairies.  Yet 
all  orthodox  teaching  turns  out  its  pupils  uninstructed, 
for,  as  Tillottson  has  said,  "He  that  does  not  know 
those  things  which  are  of  use  and  necessity  for  him 
to  know,  is  but  an  ignorant  man,  whatever  he  may 
know  beside."  To  know  this  world,  and  the  Secular 
conditions  of  prosperity  in  it,  is  indispensable  to  the 
people. 

Christianity  is  entirely  futile  in  industry.  If  a 
workman  cannot  pay  his  taxes,  the  most  devout  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer  will  not  abate  sixpence  in  con- 
sideration of  the  defaulter's  piety.  The  poor  man  may 
believe  in  the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  be  able  to  recite 
all  the  Collects  ;  he  may  spend  his  Sundays  at  church, 
and  his  evenings  at  prayer- meeting;  but  the  reverend 
magistrate,  who  has  confirmed  him  and  preached  to 
him,  will  send  him  to  gaol  if  he  does  not  pay.  The 
sooner  workmen  understand  that  Christianity  has  no 
commercial  value,  the  better  for  them. 

Why  should  purely  Secular  instruction  be  regarded 


70  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

with  distrust,  when  purely  religious  education  does 
not  answer  ?  It  does  not  appear  in  human  experience 
that  purely  religious  teaching,  even  when  dispensed 
in  a  clergyman's  family,  is  a  security  for  good  con- 
duct. It  is  matter  of  common  remark  that  the  sons 
of  clergymen  turn  out  worse  than  the  sons  of  parents 
in  other  professions. 

We  want  no  whining  or  puling  population.  The 
elements  of  science  and  morality  will  give  children 
the  use  of  their  minds,  and  minds  to  use,  and  teach 
justice  and  kindness,  self-direction,  self-reliance,  forti- 
tude, and  truth.  There  is  piety  in  this  instruction, — 
piety  to  mankind, — exactly  that  sort  of  piety  for  the 
want  of  which  society  suffers. 

The  principles  for  which  during  two  centuries  Non- 
conformity in  England  has  contended  are,  that  the 
State  should  forbid  no  religion,  impose  no  religion, 
teach  no  religion,  pay  no  religion.  In  1870,  the  year 
in  which  Mr.  Forster's  Act  came  into  operation,  I  was 
the  only  person  who  issued  a  public  address  to  the 
"School  Board  Electors"  in  favor  of  free  compulsory, 
and  Secular  instruction.  Two  of  the  proposals,  the 
least  likely  to  be  favorably  received,  have  since  been 
adopted.  The  turn  of  the  third  must  be  near,  unless 
fools  are  always  at  the  polls* 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


REJECTED  TENETS  REPLACED  BY  BETTER. 

"False  ideas  can  be  confuted  by  argument, 
but  it  is  only  by  true  ideas  they  can  be  ex- 
pelled." — Cardinal  Newman. 

ERROR  will  live  wherever  vermin  of  the  mind  may 
burrow ;  and  error,  if  expelled,  will  return  to  its 
accustomed  haunt,  unless  its  place  be  otherwise  occu- 
pied by  some  tenant  of  truth.  Suppose  that  criticism 
has  established  : 

1.  That  God  is  unknown. 

2.  That  a  future  life  is  unprovable. 

3.  That  the  Bible  is  not  a  practical  guide. 

4.  That  Providence  sleeps. 

5.  That  prayer  is  futile. 

6.  That  original  sin  is  untrue. 

7.  That  eternal  perdition  is  unreal. 

What  is  free  thought  going  to  do?  All  these  the- 
ological ideas,  however  untrue,  are  forces  of  opinion 
on  the  side  of  error.  After  taking  these  doctrines  out 
of  the  minds  of  men,  as  far  as  reasoning  criticism  may 
do  it,  what  is  proposed  to  be  put  in  their  place?  When 
we  call  out  to  men  that  they  are  going  down  a  wrong 


7a  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

road,  we  are  more  likely  to  arrest  their  attention  if  we 
can  point  out  the  right  road  to  take. 

No  mind  is  ever  entirely  empty.  The  objection  to 
ignorance  is  not  that  it  has  no  ideas,  but  that  it  has 
wrong  ones.  Its  ideas  are  narrow,  cramped,  vicious. 
It  likes  without  reason,  hates  without  cause,  and  is 
suspicious  of  what  it  might  trust.  It  is  not  enough  to 
tell  a  man  who  is  eating  injurious  food  that  it  will  harm 
him.  If  he  has  no  other  aliment,  he  must  go  on  feed- 
ing upon  what  he  has.  If  you  cannot  supply  better, 
you  cannot  reproach  him  who  takes  the  bad.  But  if 
you  have  true  principles,  they  should  be  offered  as 
substitutes  for  the  false.  Secularist  truth  should  tread 
close  upon  the  heels  of  theological  error. 

1.  For  the  study  of  the  origin  of  the  universe  Sec- 
ularism substitutes  the  study  of  the  laws  and  uses  of 
the  universe,  which.  Cardinal  Newman  admitted,  might 
be  regarded  as  consonant  to  the  will  of  its  author. 

2.  For  a  future  state  Secularism  proposes  the  wise 
use  of  this,  as  he  who  fails  in  this  "duty  nearest  hand  " 
has  no  moral  fitness  for  any  other. 

3.  For  revelation  it  offers  the  guidance  of  observa- 
tion, investigation,  and  experience.  Instead  of  taking 
authority  for  truth,  it  takes  truth  for  authority. 

4.  For  the  providence  of  Scripture,  Secularism  di- 
rects men  to  the  providence  of  science,  which  provides 
against  peril,  or  brings  deliverance  when  peril  comes. 

5.  For  prayer  it  proposes  self-help  and  the  em- 
ployment of  all  the  resources  of  manliness  and  indus- 


REJECTED  TENETS  REPLACED  BY  BETTER.     73 

try.  Jupiter  himself  rebuked  the  waggoner  who  cried 
for  aid,  instead  of  putting  his  own  shoulder  to  the 
wheel. 

6.  For  original  depravity,  which  infuses  hopeless- 
ness into  all  effort  for  personal  excellence,  Secularism 
counsels  the  creation  of  those  conditions,  so  far  as 
human  prevision  can  provide  them,  in  which  it  shall 
be  "impossible  for  a  man  to  be  depraved  or  poor." 
The  aim  of  Secularism  is  to  promote  the  moralisation 
of  this  world,  which  Christianity  has  proved  ineffec- 
tual to  accomplish. 

7.  For  eternal  perdition,  which  appals  every  human 
heart,  Secularism  substitutes  the  warnings  and  pen- 
alties of  causation  attending  the  violation  of  the  laws 
of  nature,  or  the  laws  of  truth — penalties  inexorable 
and  unevadable  in  their  consequences.  Though  they 
extend  to  the  individual  no  farther  than  this  life,  they 
are  without  the  terrible  element  of  divine  vindictive- 
ness,  yet,  being  near  and  inevitable — following  the 
offender  close  as  the  shadow  of  the  offence — are  more 
deterrent  than  future  punishment,  which  ' '  faith  "  may 
evade  without  merit. 

The  aim  of  Secularism  is  to  educate  the  conscience 
in  the  service  of  man.  It  puts  duty  into  free  thought. 
Men  inquired,  for  self-protection,  and  from  dislike  of 
error.  But  if  a  man  was  in  no  danger  himself,  and  was 
indifferent  whether  an  error — which  no  longer  harmed 
him — prevailed  or  not.  Secularism  holds  that  it  is  still 
a  duty  to  aid  in  ending  it  for  the  sake  of  others.     It 


74  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

was  W.  J.  Fox,  the  most  heretical  preacher  of  his  day, 
who  said  (1824):  "I  believe  in  the  right  of  religion 
and  the  duty  of  free  inquiry."  He  is  a  very  exceptional 
person — as  we  know  in  political  as  well  as  in  questions 
of  mental  freedom — who  cares  for  a  right  he  does  not 
need  himself.  A  man  is  generally  of  opinion,  as  I 
have  seen  in  many  agitations,  that  nobody  need  care 
for  a  form  of  liberty  he  does  not  want  himself.  It  is  as 
though  a  man  on  the  bank  should  think  that  a  man  in 
the  water  does  not  want  a  rope.  Duty  is  devotion  to 
the  right.  Right  in  morals  is  that  which  is  morally 
expedient.  That  is  morally  expedient  which  is  con- 
ducive to  the  happiness  of  the  greatest  numbers.  The 
service  of  others  is  the  practical  form  of  duty.  "He," 
says  Buddha,  "who  was  formerly  heedless,  and  after- 
wards becomes  earnest,  lights  up  the  world  like  the 
moon  escaped  from  a  cloud." 

Constructiveness  is  an  education  which  attains  suc- 
cess but  slowly.  Some  men  have  no  distinctive  notion 
whatever  of  truth.  It  seems  never  to  have  occurred 
to  them  that  there  is  anything  intrinsic  in  it,  and  they 
only  fall  into  it  by  accident.  Others  have  a  wholesome 
idea  that  truth  is  essential,  and  that,  as  a  rule,  you 
ought  to  tell  it,  and  some  do  it.  This  is  a  small  con- 
ception of  truth,  but  it  is  good  as  far  as  it  goes,  and 
ought  to  be  valued,  as  it  is  scarce.  If  any  one  asks 
such  a  person  whether  what  he  says  is  what  he  thinks, 
or  what  he  knows,  to  be  true,  he  is  perplexed.  The 
difference  between  the  two  things  has  not  occurred  to 


REJECTED  TENETS  REPLACED  BY  BETTER.     75 

him.  He  has  been  under  the  impression  that  what  he 
believes  is  the  same  thing  as  what  he  knows,  and 
when  he  finds  the  two  things  are  very  different,  his 
idea  of  truth  is  doubled  and  is  twice  as  large  as  it  was 
before. 

There  is  yet  a  larger  view,  to  which  many  never 
attain.  To  them  all  truth  is  truth  of  equal  value.  All 
geese  are  geese,  but  all  are  not  equally  tender.  Though 
all  horses  are  horses,  all  are  not  equally  swift.  Yet 
many  never  observe  that  all  facts  are  not  equally  suc- 
culent or  swift,  nor  all  truth  of  equal  value  or  useful- 
ness. 

Social  truth  has  three  marks, — it  must  be  explicit, 
relevant  to  the  question  in  hand,  and  of  use  for  the 
purpose  in  hand.  But  it  requires  some  intelligence  to 
observe  this,  and  judgment  to  act  upon  it. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


MORALITY  INDEPENDENT  OF  THEOLOGY. 

"  Religion,  as  dealing  with  the  confessedly 
incomprehensible,  is  not  the  basis  for  human 
union,  in  social,  or  industrial,  or  political  cir- 
cles, but  only  that  portion  of  old  religion 
which  is  now  called  moral." 

— Professor  Francis  Williant  Newman, 

BISHOP  ELLICOTT  was  the  first  prelate  whom  I 
heard  admit  (in  a  sermon  to  the  members  of  the 
British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science) 
that  men  might  be  moral  from  other  motives  than 
those  furnished  by  Christianity.  Renan  says  that  Jus- 
tin Martyr  "in  his  Apology,  never  attacks  the  principle 
of  the  empire.  He  wants  the  empire  to  examine  the 
Christian  doctrines."  A  Secularist  would  have  at- 
tacked the  principle,  regarding  freedom  as  of  more 
consequence  to  progress  than  any  doctrine  without.it. 
Those  who  seek  to  guide  life  by  reason  are  not 
without  a  standard  of  appeal.  "Secularism  accepts 
no  authority  but  that  of  nature,  adopts  no  methods 
but  those  of  science  and  pnilosophy,  and  respects  in 
practice  no  rule  but  that  of  the  conscience,  illustrated 
by  the  common  sense  of  mankind.  It  values  the  les- 
sons of  the  past,  and  looks  to  tradition  as  presenting 


MORALITY  INDEPENDENT  OF  THEOLOGY.       77 

a  storehouse  of  raw  materials  for  thought,  and  in  many 
cases  results  of  high  wisdom  for  our  reverence  ;  but  it 
utterly  disowns  tradition  as  a  ground  of  belief,  whether 
miracles  and  supernaturalism  be  claimed  or  not  claimed 
on  its  side.  No  sacred  Scripture  or  ancient  Church 
can  be  made  a  basis  of  belief,  for  the  obvious  reason 
that  their  claims  always  need  to  be  proved,  and  can- 
not without  absurdity  be  assumed.  The  association 
leaves  to  its  individual  members  to  yield  whatever  re- 
spects their  own  good  sense  judges  to  be  due  to  the 
opinions  of  great  men,  living  or  dead,  spoken  or  writ- 
ten ;  as  also  to  the  practice  of  ancient  communities, 
national  or  ecclesiastical.  But  it  disowns  all  appeal 
to  such  authorities  as  final  tests  of  truth.  "^ 

Morality  can  be  inspired  and  confirmed  by  percep- 
tion of  the  consequences  of  conduct.  Theology  regards 
free  will  as  the  foundation  of  responsibility.  But  free 
will  saves  no  man  from  material  consequences,  and 
diverts  attention  from  material  causes  of  evil  and  good. 
Under  the  free  will  doctrine  the  wonder  is  that  any 
morality  is  left  in  the  world.  It  is  a  doctrine  which 
gives  scoundrels  the  same  chance  as  a  saint.  When 
a  man  is  assured  that  he  can  be  saved  when  he  be- 
lieves, and  that,  having  free  will,  he  can  believe  when 
he  pleases,  he,  as  a  rule,  never  does  please  until  he 
has  had  his  fill  of  vice,  or  is  about  to  die, — either  of 
disease  or  by  the  hangman.    If  by  the  hangman,  he  is 

1 1  owe  the  expression  of  this  passage,  whose  comprehensiveness  and 
felicity  of  phrase  exceed  the  reach  of  my  pen,  to  Professor  Francis  William 
Kewman. 


78  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

told  that,  provided  he  repents  before  eight  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  he  may  find  himself  nestling  in  Abra- 
ham's bosom  before  nine.  Free  will  is  the  doctrine  of 
rascalism.  It  is  time  morality  had  other  foundation 
than  theology.  The  relations  of  life  can  be  made  as 
impressive  as  ideas  of  supernaturalism.  But  in  this 
Christians  not  only  lend  no  help,  they  disparage  the 
attempt  to  control  life  by  reason.  When  Secularism 
was  first  talked  of,  the  President  of  the  Congregational 
Union,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Harris,  commended  to  the  Union 
the  words  of  Bishop  Lavington  of  a  century  earlier 
(1750):  "My  brethren,  I  beg  you  will  rise  up  with 
me  against  mere  moral  preaching.  "^  A  writer  of  dis- 
tinction, R.  H.  Hutton,  writing  on  *< Secularism"  in 
the  Expositor  so  late  as  1881,  argues  strenuously  that 
moral  government  is  impossible  without  supernatural 
convictions.  The  egotism  of  Christianity  is  as  con- 
spicuous as  that  of  politics.  No  ethic  is  genuine  un- 
less it  bears  the  hall-mark  of  the  Church.  Secularism 
does  not  deny  the  efficacy  of  other  theories  of  life 
upon  those  who  accept  them,  and  only  claims  to  be  of 
use  as  commending  morality  on  considerations  purely 
human,  to  those  who  reject  theories  purely  spiritual. 
Any  one  familiar  with  controversy  knows  that 
Christianity  is  advertised  like  a  patent  medicine  which 
will  cure  all  the  maladies  of  mankind.  Everybody 
who  tries  reasoned  morality  is  encouraged  to  condemn 
it,  and  is  denounced  if  he  commends  it. 

IBritith  Banner,  October  27,  185J. 


MORALITY  INDEPENDENT  OF  THEOLOGY.       79 

It  is  a  maxim  of  Secularism  that,  wherever  there 
is  a  rightful  object  at  which  men  should  aim,  there  is 
a  Secular  path  to  it. 

Nearly  all  inferior  natures  are  susceptible  of  moral 
and  physical  improvability,  which  improvability  can 
be  indefinitely  advanced  by  supplying  proper  material 
conditions. 

Since  it  is  not  capable  of  demonstration  whether 
the  inequalities  of  human  condition  will  be  compen- 
sated for  in  another  life,  it  is  the  business  of  intelli- 
gence to  rectify  them  in  this  world.  The  speculative 
worship  of  superior  beings,  who  cannot  need  it,  seems 
a  lesser  duty  than  the  patient  service  of  known  inferior 
natures  and  the  mitigation  of  harsh  destiny,  so  that 
the  ignorant  may  be  enlightened  and  the  low  elevated. 

Christians  often  promote  projects  beneficial  to  men; 
but  are  they  not  mainly  incited  thereto  by  the  hope  of 
inclining  the  hearts  of  those  they  aid  to  their  cause? 
Is  not  their  motive  proselytism?  Is  it  not  a  higher 
morality  to  do  good  for  its  own  sake,  careless  whether 
those  benefited  become  adherents  or  not? 

Going  to  a  distant  town  to  mitigate  some  calamity 
there,  will  illustrate  the  principle  of  Secularism.  One 
man  will  go  on  this  errand  from  pure  sympathy  with 
the  unfortunate ;  this  is  goodness.  Another  goes  be- 
cause the  priest  bids  him  ;  this  is  obedience.  Another 
goes  because  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Matthew  tells 
him  that  all  such  persons  will  pass  to  the  right  hand 
of  the  Father  ;  this  is  calculation.     Another  goes  be- 


8o  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

cause  he  believes  God  commands  him ;  this  is  theo- 
logical piety.  Another  goes  because  he  is  aware  that 
the  neglect  of  suffering  will  not  answer ;  this  is  utili- 
tarianism. But  another  goes  on  the  errand  of  mercy 
because  it  is  an  immediate  service  to  humanity,  know- 
ing that  material  deliverance  is  piety  and  better  than 
spiritual  consolation  ;  this  is  Secularism. 

One  whose  reputation  for  spirituality  is  in  all  the 
Churches  says :  ' '  Properly  speaking,  all  true  work  is 
religion,  and  whatsoever  religion  is  not  work  may  go 
and  dwell  among  the  Brahmins,  the  Antinomians, 
Spinning  Dervishes,  or  where  it  will.  Admirable  was 
that  maxim  of  the  old  monks.  Labor  are  est  or  are  (Work 
is  worship). 1  In  his  article  on  Auguste  Comte,  Mr. 
J.  S.  Mill  says  he  "uses  religion  in  its  modern  sense 
as  signifying  that  which  binds  the  convictions,  whether 
to  deity  or  to  duty, — deity  in  the  theological  sense,  or 
duty  in  the  moral  sense."  This  is  the  only  sense  in 
which  a  Secularist  would  employ  the  term.  Religious 
moralism  is  a  term  I  might  use,  since  it  binds  a  man 
to  humanity,  which  religion  does  not.  *'  Without 
God,"  said  Mazzini  to  the  Italian  workingmen  forty 
years  ago, — "without  God  you  may  compel,  but  not 
persuade.  You  may  become  tyrants  in  your  turn  ; 
you  cannot  be  educators  or  apostles."  One  night, 
when  Mazzini  was  speaking  in  this  way,  in  the  hear- 
ing of  Garibaldi,  arguing  that  there  was  no  ground  of 
duty  unless  based  on  the  idea  of  God,  the  General 

ICar'.y'e,  Past  ^md  Present, 


MORALITY  INDEPENDENT  OF  THE OLOGV.       81 

turned  round  and  said :  "I  am  an  Atheist.  Am  I  de- 
ficient in  the  sense  of  duty  ?"  "Ah,"  replied  Mazzini, 
"you  imbibed  it  with  your  mother's  milk."  All  around 
smiled  at  the  quick-witted  evasion. 

In  one  sense  Mazzini  was  as  atheistic  in  mind  as 
orthodox  Christians.  He  disbelieved  that  truth,  duty, 
or  humanity  could  have  any  vitality  unless  derived 
from  belief  in  God.  Devout  as  few  men  are,  in  the 
Church  or  out  of  it,  yet  Mazzini  believed  alone  in 
God.  Dogmas  of  the  Churches  were  to  him  as  though 
they  were  not ;  yet  there  were  times  when  he  seemed 
to  admit  that  other  motives  than  the  one  which  in« 
spired  him  might  operate  for  good  in  other  minds.  In 
a  letter  he  once  addressed  to  me  there  occurred  this 
splendid  passage : — 

"We  pursue  the  same  end, — progressive  improvement,  asso- 
ciation, transformation  of  the  corrupted  medium  in  which  we  are 
now  living,  the  overthrow  of  all  idolatries,  shams,  lies,  and  con- 
ventionalities. We  both  want  man  to  be,  not  the  poor,  passive, 
cowardly,  phantasmagoric  unreality  of  the  actual  time,  thinking 
in  one  way  and  acting  in  another;  bending  to  power  which  he 
hates  and  despises ;  carrying  empty  popish  or  Thirty-nine  Article 
formulas  on  his  brow,  and  none  within  ;  but  a  fragment  of  the  liv- 
ing truth,  a  real  individual  being  linked  to  collective  humanity, — 
the  bold  seeker  of  things  to  come ;  the  gentle,  mild,  loving,  yet 
firm,  uncompromising,  inexorable  apostle  of  all  that  is  just  and 
heroic, — the  Priest,  the  Poet,  and  the  Prophet." 

Mazzini  saw  in  the  conception  of  God  the  great 
"Indicator"  of  duty,  and  that  the  one  figure,  "the 
morst  deeply  inspired  of  God,  men  have  seen  on  the 


8a  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

earth  was  Jesus."  Mazzini's  impassioned  protest 
against  unbelief  was  itself  a  form  of  unbelief.  He  be- 
lieved only  in  one  God,  not  in  three.  If  Jesus  was 
inspired  of  God,  he  was  not  God,  or  he  would  have 
been  self-inspired.  But,  apart  from  this  repellent 
heresy,  if  Theism  and  Christianism  are  essential  to 
those  who  would  serve  humanity,  all  propaganda  of 
freedom  must  be  delayed  until  converts  are  made  to 
this  new  faith. 

The  question  will  be  put.  Has  independent  moral- 
ity ever  been  seen  in  action  ? 

Voltaire,  at  the  peril  of  his  liberty  and  life,  rescued 
a  friendless  family  from  the  fire  and  the  wheel  the 
priests  had  prepared  for  them.  Paine  inspired  the  in- 
dependence of  America,  and  Lloyd  Garrison  gave  lib- 
erty to  the  slaves  whose  bondage  the  clergy  defended. 
The  Christianity  of  three  nations  produced  no  three 
men  in  their  day  who  did  anything  comparable  to  the 
achievement  of  these  three  sceptics,  who  wrought  this 
splendid  good,  not  only  without  Christianity,  but  in 
opposition  to  it.  Save  for  Christian  obstruction,  they 
had  accomplished  still  greater  good  without  the  peril 
they  had  to  brave. 

None  of  the  earlier  critics  of  Secularism,  as  has 
been  said  (and  not  many  in  the  later  years),  realised 
that  it  was  addressed,  not  to  Christians,  but  to  those 
who  rejected  Christianity,  or  who  were  indifferent  to 
it,  and  were  outside  it.  Christians  cannot  do  anything 
to  inspire  them  with  ethical  principles,  since  they  do 


MORALITY  INDEFENDENT  OF  THEOLOGY.       Zi 

not  believe  in  morality  unless  based  on  their  super- 
natural tenets.  They  have  to  convert  men  to  Theism, 
to  miracles,  prophecy,  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures, 
the  Trinity,  and  other  soul-wearying  doctrines,  before 
they  can  inculcate  morality  they  can  trust.  We  do 
not  rush  in  where  they  fear  to  tread.  Secularism 
moves  where  they  do  not  tread  at  all. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


ETHICAL  CERTITUDE. 

"  You  can  tell  more  about  a  man's  charac* 
ter  by  trading  horses  with  him  once  than  you 
can  by  hearing  him  talk  for  a  year  in  prayer 
meeting." — American  Maxim, 

A  FORM  of  thought  which  has  no  certitude  can 
*^^  command  no  intelligent  trust.  Unless  capable 
of  verification,  no  opinion  can  claim  attention,  nor  re- 
tain attention,  if  it  obtains  it. 

If  a  sum  in  arithmetic  be  wrong,  it  can  be  discov- 
ered b}'  a  new  way  of  working ;  if  a  medical  recipe  is 
wrong,  the  effect  is  manifest  in  the  health ;  if  a  polit- 
ical law  is  wrong,  it  is  sooner  or  later  apparent  in  the 
mischief  it  produces  ;  if  a  theorem  in  navigation  is  er- 
roneous, delay  or  disaster  warns  the  mariner  of  his 
mistake  ;  if  an  insane  moralist  teaches  that  adherence 
to  truth  is  wrong,  men  can  try  the  effects  of  lying, 
when  distrust  and  disgrace  soon  undeceive  them.  But 
if  a  theological  belief  is  wrong,  we  must  die  to  find  it 
out.  Secularism,  therefore,  is  safer.  It  is  best  to 
follow  the  double  lights  of  reason  and  experience  than 
the  dark  lantern  of  faith.      "In  all  but  religion,"  ex- 


ETHICAL  CERTITUDE.  85 

claims  a  famous  preacher,^  "men  know  their  true  in- 
terests and  use  their  own  understanding.  Nobody 
takes  anything  on  trust  at  market,  nor  would  anybody 
do  so  at  church  if  there  were  but  a  hundredth  part  the 
care  for  truth  which  there  is  for  money." 

Mr.  Rathbone  Greg  has  shown,  in  a  memorable 
passage,  that  **  the  lot  of  man — not  perhaps  altogether 
of  the  individual,  but  certainly  of  the  race — is  in  his 
own  hands,  from  his  being  surrounded  by  ^jr^// /awj, 
on  knowledge  of  which,  and  conformity  to  which,  his 
well-being  depends.  The  study  of  these  and  obedience 
to  them  form,  therefore,  the  great  aim  of  public  in- 
struction.    Men  must  be  taught : 

"I.  1h.Q  physical  laws  on  which  health  depends. 

"2.  The  moral  laws  ow.^\\\^  happiness  depends. 

"3.  The  intellectual  laws  on  which  knowledge  de- 
pends. 

*  *  4.  The  social  and  political  laws  on  which  national 
prosperity  and  advancement  depend. 

"5.   The  economic  laws  on  vihich.  wealth  depends." 

Mr.  Spurgeon  had  flashes  of  Secularistic  inspira- 
tion, as  when  engaging  a  servant,  who  professed  to 
have  taken  religion,  he  asked  "whether  she  swept 
under  the  mats."  It  was  judging  piety  by  a  material 
test. 

There  is  no  trust  surer  than  the  conclusions  of  rea- 
son and  science.  What  is  incapable  of  proof  is  usually 

IW.  J.  Fox. 


86  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

decided  by  desire,  and  is  without  the  conditions  of 
uniformity  or  certitude. 

Duty  consists  in  doing  the  right  because  it  is  just 
to  others,  and  because  we  must  set  the  example  of 
doing  right  to  others,  or  we  have  no  claim  that  others 
shall  do  right  to  us.  Certitude  is  best  obtained  by  the 
employment  of  material  means,  because  we  can  better 
calculate  them,  and  because  they  are  less  likely  to 
evade  us,  or  betray  us,  than  any  other  means  available 
to  us. 

Orthodox  religions  are  pale  in  the  face  now.  They 
still  keep  the  word  of  material  promise  to  the  ear,  and 
break  it  to  the  heart ;  and  a  great  number  of  people 
now  know  it,  and  many  of  the  clergy  know  that  they 
know  it.  The  poor  need  material  aid,  and  prayer  is 
the  way  not  to  get  it ;  while  science,  more  provident 
than  faith,  has  brought  the  people  generous  gifts,  and 
inspired  them  with  just  expectations.  What  men  need 
is  a  guide  which  stands  on  a  business  footing.  The 
Churches  administer  a  system  of  foreign  affairs  in  a 
very  loose  way,  quite  inconsistent  with  sound  commer- 
cial principles.  For  instance,  a  firm  giving  checks  on 
a  bank  in  some  distant  country — not  to  be  found  in 
any  gazetteer  of  ascertained  places,  nor  laid  down  in 
any  chart,  and  from  which  no  persons  who  ever  set  out 
in  search  of  it  were  ever  known  to  return — would  do 
very  little  business  among  prudent  men.  Yet  this  is 
precisely  the  nature  of  the  business  engaged  in  by  or- 
thodox firms. 


ETHICAL  CERTITUDE.  87 

On  the  other  hand,  Secularism  proposes  to  trans- 
act the  business  of  life  on  purely  mercantile  princi- 
ples. It  engages  only  in  that  class  of  transactions  the 
issue  of  which  can  be  tested  by  the  experience  of  this 
life.  Its  checks,  if  I  may  so  speak,  are  drawn  upon 
duty,  good  sense,  and  material  effort,  and  are  to  be 
cashed  from  proceeds  arising  in  our  midst — under  our 
own  eyes — subject  to  ordinary  commercial  tests.  Na- 
ture is  the  banker  who  pays  all  notes  held  by  those 
who  observe  its  laws.  To  use  the  words  of  Macbeth, 
it  is  here,  "on  this  bank  and  shoal  of  time"  upon 
which  we  are  cast,  that  nature  pays  its  checks,  and 
not  elsewhere ;  which  are  honored  now,  and  not  in  an 
unknown  world,  in  some  unknown  time,  and  in  an  en- 
tirely unknown  way.  By  lack  of  judgment,  or  sense, 
the  Secularist  may  transact  bad  business  ;  but  he  gives 
good  security.  His  surety  is  experience.  His  ref- 
erences are  to  the  facts  of  the  present  time.  He  puts 
all  who  have  dealings  with  him  on  their  guard.  Sec- 
ularism tells  men  that  they  must  look  out  for  them- 
selves, act  for  themselves,  within  the  limits  of  neither 
injuring  nor  harming  others.  Secularism  does  not 
profess  to  be  infallible,  but  it  acts  on  honest  prin- 
ciples. It  seeks  to  put  progress  on  the  business  foot- 
ing of  good  faith.  ^  Adherents  who  accept  the  theory 
of  this  life  for  this  life  dwell  in  a  land  of  their  own — 
the  land  of  certitude.  Science  and  utilitarian  morality 
are  kings  in  that  country,  and  rule  there  by  right  of 

- 1  See  Secularism  a  Religion  which  Gives  Heaven  no  Trouble, 


h8  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

conquest  over  error  and  superstition.  In  the  kingdom 
of  Thought  there  is  no  conquest  over  men,  but  over 
foolishness  only.  Outside  the  world  of  science  and 
morality  lies  the  great  Debatable  Ground  of  the  ex- 
istence of  Deity  and  a  Future  State.  The  Ruler  of 
the  Debatable  Ground  is  named  Probability,  and  his 
two  ministers  are  Curiosity  and  Speculation.  Over 
that  mighty  plain,  which  is  as  wide  as  the  universe 
and  as  old  as  time,  no  voice  of  the  gods  has  ever  been 
heard,  and  no  footsteps  of  theirs  have  ever  been  traced. 
Philosophers  have  explored  the  field  with  telescopes 
of  a  longer  range  than  the  eyes  of  a  thousand  saints, 
and  have  recognised  nothing  save  the  silent  and  dis- 
tant horizon.  Priests  have  denounced  them  for  not 
perceiving  what  was  invisible.  Sectaries  have  clam- 
ored, and  the  most  ignorant  have  howled — as  the  most 
ignorant  always  do — that  there  is  something  there, 
because  they  want  to  see  it.  All  the  while  the  white 
mystery  is  still  unpenetrated  in  this  life. 

But  a  future  being  undisclosed  is  no  proof  that 
there  is  no  future.  Those  who  reason  through  their 
desires  will  believe  there  is  ;  those  who  reason  through 
their  understanding  may  yet  hope  that  there  is.  In 
the  meantime,  all  stand  before  the  portals  of  the  un- 
trodden world  in  equal  unknowingness.  If  faith  can 
be  piety,  work  is  more  so.  To  bring  new  beauty  out 
of  common  life — is  not  that  piety?  To  change  blank 
stupidity  into  intelligent  admiration  of  any  work  of 
nature — is  not  that  piety?     If  our  towns  and  streets  be 


ETHICAL  CERTITUDE.  89 

made  to  give  gladness  and  cheerfulness  to  all  who  live 
or  walk  therein — is  not  that  piety?  If  the  prayer  of 
innocence  ascend  to  heaven  through  a  pure  atmos- 
phere, instead  of  through  the  noisome  and  polluted 
air  of  uncleanness  common  in  the  purlieus  of  towns 
and  of  churches,  and  even  cathedrals — is  not  that 
piety  ?  Can  we,  in  these  days,  conceive  of  refigious 
persons  being  ignorant  and  dirty?  Yet  they  abound. 
If,  therefore,  we  send  to  heaven  clean,  intelligent, 
bright-minded  saints — is  not  that  piety?  It  is  no  bad 
religion — as  religions  go — to  believe  in  the  good  God 
of  knowledge  and  cleanliness  and  cheerfulness  and 
beauty,  and  offer  at  his  altar  the  daily  sacrifice  of  in- 
telligent sincerity  and  material  service. 

We  leave  to  others  their  own  way  of  faith  and  wor- 
ship. We  ask  only  leave  to  take  our  own.  Carlyle 
has  told  us  that  only  two  men  are  to  be  honored,  and 
no  third — the  mechanic  and  the  thinker  :  he  who  works 
with  honest  hand,  making  the  world  habitable  ;  and 
he  who  works  with  his  brain,  making  thought  artistic 
and  true.  "All  the  rest,"  he  adds  with  noble  scorn, 
**are  chaff,  which  the  wind  may  blow  whither  it  list- 
eth."  The  certainty  of  heaven  is  for  the  useful  alone. 
Mere  belief  is  the  easiest,  the  poorest,  the  shabbiest 
device  by  which  conscientious  men  ever  attempted  to 
scale  the  walls  of  Paradise. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


THE  ETHICAL  METHOD  OF  CONTROVERSY. 

"It  was  one  of  the  secrets  of  my  craft  in 
the  old  days,  when  I  wanted  to  weld  iron  or 
work  steel  to  a  fine  purpose,  to  begin  gently. 
If  I  began,  as  all  learners  do,  to  strike  my  heav- 
iest blows  at  the  start,  the  iron  would  crumble 
instead  of  welding,  or  the  steel  would  suffer 
under  my  hammer,  so  that  when  it  came  to  be 
tempered  it  would  'fly,'  as  we  used  to  say,  and 
rob  the  thing  I  had  made  of  its  finest  quality." 
—Robert  Coliyer,  D.  D. 

'*  'T^HEY  who  believe  that  they  have  truth  ask  no 
J-  favor,  save  that  of  being  heard  ;  they  dare  the 
judgment  of  mankind  ;  refused  co-operation,  they  in- 
voke opposition,  for  opposition  is  their  opportunity." 
This  was  the  maxim  I  wrote  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Secularistic  movement,  to  show  that  we  were  willing 
to  accept  ourselves  the  controversy,  which  we  con- 
tended was  the  sole  means  of  establishing  truth.  No 
proposition,  as  Samuel  Bailey  showed,  is  to  be  trusted 
until  it  has  been  tested  by  very  wide  discussion.  We 
soon  found  that  the  free  and  open  field  of  Milton  was 
not  sufficient.  It  needed  a  "fair"  as  well  as  a  "free 
and  open  encounter."  Disputants  require  to  be  equally 
matched  in  debate  as  in  arms. 


THE  ETHICAL  METHOD  OF  CONTROVEkSY.      91 

The  Secularist  policy  is  to  accept  the  purely  moral 
teaching  of  the  Bible,  and  to  controvert  its  theology, 
in  such  respects  as  it  contradicts  and  discourages  eth- 
ical effort.  Yet  theological  questions  are  always  sought 
to  be  forced  upon  us.  The  Rev.  Henry  Townley  fol- 
lowed me  to  the  Leader  office  (1853-1854)  to  induce 
me  to  discuss  the  question  of  the  "existence  of  God." 
I  never  had  done  so,  and  objected  that  it  would  give 
the  impression  that  Secularism  was  atheistic.  He  was 
so  insistent  and  importunate  that  I  consented  to  dis- 
cuss the  question  with  him.  Never  after  did  I  do  so 
with  any  one.  The  Rev.  Brewin  Grant  endeavored 
to  get  my  acceptance  of  propositions  which  pledged 
me  to  a  wild  opposition  to  Christianity.  Mr.  Samuel 
Morley,  honorable  in  all  things,  admitted  I  had  ob- 
jected to  it,  but  in  the  end  I  assented  to  it,  that  the 
discussion  might  not  be  broken  off.  Thomas  Cooper 
was  persistent  that  I  should  discuss  with  him  the  au- 
thenticity of  the  Scriptures.  What  I  proposed  was 
the  proposition  that  the  authenticity  of  the  Scripture, 
its  miracles,  and  prophecies  are  quite  apart  from  moral 
truth. 

The  discussion  took  place  in  the  city  of  York,  last- 
ing five  nights.  Canon  Robinson  and  Canon  Hey 
presided  alternately.  Mr.  Cooper  was  an  able  man  in 
dealing  with  the  stock  propositions  of  Christianity;  but 
their  relevance  as  tests  of  morality  was  an  entirely  new 
subject  to  him.  He  protested  rather  than  reasoned, 
and  declared  he  would  never  discuss  the  question  of 


93  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

the  ethical  test  of  the  truth  of  Scriptures  ;  nor  have  I 
ever  found  any  responsible  minister  willing  to  do  so 
down  to  this  day.  Thus  Christians  should  condemn 
with  reservation  the  tendency  in  Secularists  to  debate 
theology,  seeing  how  reluctant  they  are  to  do  other- 
wise themselves.  Christians  seem  incapable  of  under- 
standing how  much  the  objection  to  their  cause  arises 
in  the  revolt  of  the  moral  sense  against  it. 

On  first  meeting  Richard  Carlile  in  1842,  some 
years  before  Secularism  took  a  distinctive  form,  he  in- 
vited me  to  hear  him  lecture  upon  the  principles  of 
the  Christian  Warrior,^  of  which  he  was  editor,  and  to 
give  my  opinion  thereon.  In  doing  so  I  explained  the 
ideas  from  which  I  have  never  departed  ;  namely,  that 
no  theologic,  astronomic,  or  miraculous  mode  of  prov- 
ing Scriptural  doctrine  could  ever  be  made  even  intel- 
ligible, except  to  students  of  very  considerable  re- 
search. Such  theories,  I  contended,  must  rest,  more 
or  less,  on  critical  and  conjectural  interpretation,  and 
could  never  enable  a  workingman  to  dare  the  under- 
standing of  others  in  argument.  Scientific  interpre- 
tation laid  entirely  outside  Christian  requirements, 
and  seemed  to  Christians  as  disingenuous  evasion  of 
what  they  took  to  be  obvious  truths.  My  contention 
was  that  the  people  have  no  historic  or  critical  knowl- 
edge enabling  them  to  determine  the  divine  origin  of 
Christianity. 

On  the  platform  he  who  has  most  knowledge  of 

ITbe  last  periodical  Mr.  Carlile  edited. 


THE  ETHICAL  METHOD  OF  CONTROVERSY.      93 

Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin  will  always  be  able  to  si- 
lence any  dissentient  who  has  not  equal  information. 
If  by  accident  a  controversialist  happen  to  possess 
this  knowledge,  it  goes  for  nothing  unless  he  has  credit 
for  classical  competency.  In  controversy  of  this  na- 
ture it  is  not  enough  for  a  man  to  know ;  he  must  be 
known  to  know  before  his  conclusions  can  command 
attention.  To  myself  it  was  not  of  moment  whether 
the  Scriptures  were  authentic  or  inspired.  My  sole 
inquiry  was.  Did  they  contain  clear  moral  guidance  ? 
If  they  did,  I  accepted  that  guidance  with  gratitude. 
If  I  found  maxims  obviously  useful  and  true,  judged 
by  human  experience,  I  adopted  them,  whether  given 
by  inspiration  or  not.  If  precepts  did  not  answer  to 
this  test,  they  were  not  acceptable,  though  all  the 
apostles  in  session  had  signed  them.  To  miracles  I 
did  not  object,  nor  did  I  see  any  sense  in  endeavoring 
to  explain  them  away.  We  all  have  reason  to  regret 
that  no  one  performs  them  now.  It  was  our  misfor- 
tune that  the  power,  delegated  with  so  much  pomp  of 
promise  to  the  saints,  had  not  descended  to  these  days. 
If  any  preacher  or  deacon  could,  in  our  day,  feed  five 
thousand  men  on  a  few  loaves  and  a  few  small  fishes, 
and  leave  as  many  baskets  of  fragments  as  would  run 
a  workhouse  for  a  month,  the  Poor  Law  Commission- 
ers would  make  a  king  of  that  saint.  But  if  a  precept 
enjoined  me  to  believe  what  was  not  true,  it  would  be 
a  base  precept,  and  all  the  miracles  in  the  Scriptures 
could  not  alter  its  character ;  while,  if  a  precept  be 


94  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

honest  and  just,  no  miracle  is  wanted  to  attest  it ;  in- 
deed, a  miracle  to  allure  credence  in  it  would  only 
cast  suspicion  on  its  genuineness.  The  moral  test  of 
the  Scriptures  was  sufficient,  since  it  had  the  com 
manding  advantage  of  appealing  to  the  common  sense 
of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  of  Christian  or  of 
Pagan  persuasion.  Ethical  criticism  has  this  further 
merit,  that  on  the  platform  of  discussion  the  miner, 
the  weaver,  or  farm-laborer  is  on  the  same  level  as  the 
priest.  A  man  goes  to  heaven  upon  his  own  judg- 
ment ;  whereas,  if  his  belief  is  based  on  the  learning 
of  others,  he  goes  to  heaven  second-hand. 

When  Mr.  J.  A.  Froude  wrote  for  John  Henry 
Newman  the  Life  of  St.  Belletin,  he  ended  with  the 
words  :  "And  this  is  all  that  is  known,  and  more  than 
all,  of  the  life  of  a  servant  of  God."  In  the  Bible  there 
appears  to  be  a  great  deal  more  than  was  ever  known. 
This  does  not  concern  the  Secularist,  though  it  does 
the  scholar.  If  there  be  moral  maxims  in  the  Scrip- 
ture, what  does  it  matter  how  they  got  there? 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


ITS   DISCRIMINATION. 

"There  is  nothing  so  terrible  as  activity 
without  insight." — Goethe, 

TN  1847  I  commenced  in  the  Reasoner  what  I  entitled 
^  "The  Moral  Remains  of  the  Bible," — a  selection 
of  some  splendid  moral  stories,  incidents,  and  sen- 
tences having  ethical  characteristics  such  as  I  doubted 
not  would  "remain"  when  the  Bible  came  to  be  re- 
garded as  a  human  book.  I  wrote  a  "  Logic  of  Life."^ 
My  Trial  of  Theism  was  only  <'  as  accused  of  obstruct- 
ing Secular  life,"  as  stated  on  the  title-page.  The 
object  was  to  show  how  much  useful  criticism  could 
be  entered  upon  without  touching  the  questions  of 
authenticity,  or  miracles,  or  the  existence  of  deity. 
Thus  it  was  left  to  opponents  to  declare  that  things 
morally  incredible  were  inspired  by  God.  In  this  case 
it  was  not  I,  but  they,  who  blasphemed. 

Take  the  case  of  Samson's  famous  engagement 
with  the  Philistines  at  Ramath, — Lehi  surrounded  by 
a  band  of  warlike  Philistines  (though,  as  the  text  im- 

-ICompanion  to  the  "Logic  of  Death,"  both  contained  in  The  Trial  oj 
Theism. 


96  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

plies,  3,000  of  his  own  armed  countrymen  were  at 
hand).  Samson,  who  had  no  weapon,  was  not  given 
one  by  them,  but  had  to  look  about  for  a  "new  jaw- 
bone of  an  ass."  With  this  singular  instrument  he 
killed,  one  after  the  other,  a  thousand  Philistine  sol- 
diers, who  were  big,  strong  men,  and,  unless  every 
blow  was  fatal,  it  must  have  taken  several  blows  to 
kill  some  of  them. 

Are  there  three  places  in  the  human  body  where 
a  single  blow  will  be  sure  to  kill  a  man  ?  Did  Samson 
know  those  places  ?  And  was  he  always  able  to  direct 
his  blow  with  unerring  precision  to  one  or  other  of 
those  particular  spots?  If  the  thousand  Philistines 
"surrounded"  him,  how  did  he  keep  the  others  off 
while  he  struggled  with  the  one  he  was  killing  ?  It  is 
not  conceivable  that  the  Philistines  stood  there  to  be 
killed,  and  meekly  submitted  to  ignoble  blows,  death, 
and  degradation.  The  jawbone  must  have  been  of 
strange  texture  to  have  crashed  through  armor,  and 
have  turned  aside  spears  and  swords  of  stalwart  war- 
riors without  chipping,  splitting,  or  breaking  in  two. 
What  time  it  must  have  taken  Samson  to  pursue  each 
man,  beat  off  his  comrades,  drag  him  from  their  midst, 
give  him  the  asinine  coup  de  grdce,  drag  and  cast  his 
dead  body  upon  the  "heaps"  of  slain  he  was  piling 
up !  What  struggling,  scuffling,  and  turmoil  of  blood 
and  blows  Samson  must  have  gone  through  !  Spurted 
all  over  with  blood,  Barnum  would  have  bought  him 
for  a  Dime  Museum  as  the  deepest-colored  Red  Indian 


ITS  DISCRIMINA  TION.  97 

known.  No  Deerfoot  could  have  been  nimbler  than 
Samson  must  have  been  on  this  mighty  day.  When 
this  Herculean  fight  was  over,  which,  with  the  utmost 
expedition,  must  have  occupied  Samson  six  days, — 
which  would  give  166  killed  single-handed  per  day, — 
the  only  effect  produced  upon  Samson  appears  to  have 
been  that  he  was  "sore  athirst."  Even  after  this 
extraordinary  use  of  the  jawbone  it  was  in  such  good 
condition  that,  a  hollow  place  being  "clave"  in  it,  a 
fount  of  water  gushed  forth  for  refreshing  this  remark- 
able warrior.  Were  it  not  recorded  in  the  Bible,  it 
would  be  said  that  the  writer  intended  to  imply  that 
the  jawbone  of  the  ass  is  to  be  found  only  in  the  mouth 
of  the  reader. 

Can  it  need  miracle  or  prophecy,  authenticity,  or 
inspiration,  to  attest  this  story  of  the  Jewish  Jack-the- 
Giant-killer  ?  What  moral  good  can  arise  from  a  nar- 
ration which  it  is  reverence  to  reject?  By  leaving  it 
to  the  Christian  to  say  it  is  given  by  "inspiration"  of 
God,  it  is  he  who  blasphemes.  But  if  the  question  of 
authenticity  were  raised,  the  character  of  the  narrative 
would  be  lost  sight  of,  and  would  not  come  into  ques- 
tion ;  while  the  test  of  moral  probability  decides  the 
invalidity  of  the  story  within  the  compass  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  an  ordinary  audience. 

In  the  same  manner,  keeping  to  the  policy  of  af- 
firmation, he  who  maintains  the  self- existence,  the 
self-action,  and  eternity  of  the  universe  can  be  met 
only  by  those  who  defame  nature  as  a  second-hand 


g8  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

tool  of  God.  Such  are  atheists  towards  nature,  the 
author  of  their  existence,  and  God  must  so  regard 
them. 

A  single  precept  of  Christ's,  "Take  no  thought 
for  the  morrow,"  has  bred  swarms  of  mendicants  in 
every  age  since  this  day ;  but  a  far  more  dangerous 
precept  is  "Resist  not  evil,"  which  has  made  Christi- 
anity welcome  to  so  many  tyrants.  Christ,  whatever 
other  sentiments  he  had,  had  a  slave  heart.  Every 
friend  of  freedom  knows  that  "resistance  is  the  back- 
bone of  the  world."     The  patriot  poet^  exclaims : 

•'Land  of  oar  Fathers — in  their  hour  of  need 
God  help  them,  guarded  by  the  passive  creed." 

No  miracle  could  make  these  precepts  true,  and 
he  who  proved  their  authenticity  would  be  the  enemy 
of  mankind. 

Whether  Christ  existed  or  not  affects  in  no  way 
what  excellence  and  inimitableness  there  was  in  his 
delineated  character.  His  offer  of  palpable  material- 
istic evidence  to  Thomas  showed  that  he  recognised 
the  right  of  scepticism  to  relevant  satisfaction.  His 
concession  of  proof  in  this  case  needed  no  supernatu- 
ral testimony  to  render  it  admirable. 

The  reader  will  now  see  what  the  policy  of  Secu- 
larist advocacy  is, — mainly  to  test  theology  by  its  eth- 
ical import.  To  many  all  policy  is  restraint;  they 
cry  down  policy,  and  erect  blundering  into  a  virtue. 

1  Pr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes. 


ITS  DISCRIMINATION.  99 

Whereas  policy  is  guidance  to  a  chosen  end.  Mathe- 
matics is  but  the  policy  of  measurement ;  grammar  but 
the  policy  of  speech ;  logic  but  the  policy  of  reason ; 
arithmetic  but  the  policy  of  calculation ;  temperance 
but  the  policy  of  health ;  trigonometry  but  the  policy 
of  navigation ;  roads  but  the  policy  of  transit ;  music 
but  the  policy  of  controlling  sound ;  art  but  the  policy 
of  beauty ;  law  but  the  policy  of  protection  ;  discipline 
but  the  policy  of  strength ;  love  but  the  policy  of  af- 
fection. An  enemy  may  object  to  an  adversary  having 
a  policy,  because  he  is  futile  without  one.  The  policy 
adopted  may  be  bad,  but  no  policy  at  all  is  idiocy, 
and  commits  a  cause  to  the  providence  of  Bedlam. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


APART  FROM  CHRISTIANISM. 

"What  is  written  by  Moses  can  only  be 
read  by  God." — Bikar  Proverb. 

SECULARISM  differs  from  Christianism  in  so  far 
as  it  accepts  only  the  teachings  which  pertain  to 
man,  and  which  are  consonant  with  reason  and  ex- 
perience. 

Parts  of  the  Bible  have  moral  splendor  in  them, 
but  no  Christian  will  allow  any  one  to  take  the  parts 
he  deems  true,  and  reject  as  untrue  those  he  deems 
false.  He  who  ventured  to  be  thus  eclectic  would  be 
defamed  as  Paine  was.  Thus  Christians  compel  those 
who  would  stand  by  reason  to  stand  apart  from  them. 

To  accept  a  part,  and  put  that  forward  as  the  whole 
— to  pretend  or  even  to  assume  it  to  be  the  whole — is 
dishonest.  To  retain  a  portion,  and  reject  what  you 
leave,  and  not  say  so,  is  deceiving.  To  contend  that 
what  you  accept  as  the  spirit  of  Christianity  is  in  ac- 
cordance with  all  that  contradicts  it,  is  to  spend  your 
days  in  harmonising  opposite  statements — a  pursuit 
demoralising  to  the  understanding.  The  Secularist 
has,  therefore,  to  choose  between  dishonesty,  the  de- 


APART  FROM  CHRISTIANISM.  loi 

ception  of  others  and  deception  of  himself,  or  ethical 
principles  independent  of  Christianity — and  this  is 
what  he  does  : 

The  Bible  being  a  bundle  of  Hebrew  tracts  on 
tribal  life  and  tribal  spite,  its  assumed  infallibility  is  a 
burden,  contradicting  and  misleading  to  all  who  ac- 
cept it  as  a  divine  handbook  of  duty. 

In  papers  issued  by  religious  societies  upon  the 
Bible  it  is  declared  to  be  "  so  complete  a  system  that 
nothing  can  be  added  to  it,  or  taken  from  it,"  and  that 
"it  contains  everything  needful  to  be  known  or  done." 
This  is  so  false  that  no  one,  perceiving  it,  could  be 
honest  and  not  protest  against  it  in  the  interest  of 
others.  Recently  the  Bishop  of  Worcester  said:  "It 
was  of  no  use  resisting  the  Higher  Criticism.  God 
had  not  been  pleased  to  give  us  what  might  be  called 
a  perfect  Bible.  "^  Then  it  is  prudence  to  seek  a  more 
trustworthy  guide. 

If  money  were  bequeathed  to  maintain  the  eclectic 
criticism  of  the  Scripture,  it  would  be  confiscated  by 
Christian  law.  So  to  stand  apart  is  indispensable  self- 
defence.  Individual  Christians,  as  I  well  know,  de- 
vote themselves  with  a  noble  earnestness  to  the  service 
of  man,  as  they  understand  his  interests  ;  but  so  long 
as  Christianity  retains  the  power  of  fraud,  and  uses  it, 
Christianism  as  a  system,  or  as  a  cause,  remains  out- 
side the  pale  of  respect.  Prayer,  in  which  the  op- 
pressed and  poor  are  taught  to  trust,  is  of  no  avail  for 

\  Midland  Evening  News,  1893. 


loa  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

protection  or  food,  and  the  poor  ought  to  know  it. 
The  Bishop  of  Manchester  declared,  in  my  hearing, 
that  the  Lord's  Prayer  will  not  bring  us  "daily  bread," 
but  that  "it  is  an  exercise  of  faith  to  ask  for  what  we 
shall  not  receive."  But  if  prayer  will  not  bring  "daily 
bread,"  it  is  a  dangerous  deception  to  keep  up  the  be- 
lief that  it  will.  The  eyes  of  forethought  are  closed 
by  trust  in  such  aid,  thrift  is  an  affront  to  the  generos- 
ity of  heaven,  and  labor  is  fooHshness.  But,  alas  !  aid 
does  not  come  by  supplication.  The  prayer-maker 
dies  in  mendicancy.  It  is  not  reverence  to  pour  into 
the  ears  of  God  praise  for  protection  never  accorded. 
Dean  Stanley,  admirable  as  a  man  as  well  as  a  saint, 
was  killed  in  the  Deanery,  Westminster,  by  a  bad 
drain,  in  spite  of  all  his  Collects.  Dean  Farrar  has 
been  driven  from  St.  Margaret's  Rectory,  in  Dean's 
Yard,  by  another  drain,  which  poisons  in  spite  of  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles  ;  and  Canon  Eyton  refuses  to  take 
up  his  residence  until  the  sanitary  engineers  have 
overhauled^  the  place,  which,  notwithstanding  the  in- 
vocations of  the  Church,  Providence  does  not  see  to. 
To  keep  silence  on  the  non-intervention  of  Providence 
would  be  to  connive  at  the  fate  of  those  who  come  to 
destruction  by  such  dependence. 

"O  mother,  praying  God  will  save 

Thy  sailor  !     While  thy  head  is  bowed, 
His  heavy-shotted  hammock-shroud 
Drops  in  his  vast  and  wandering  grave  1 " 

1  See  Wettmintter  Ganatte  London  Letter,  November  xg,  1895. 


APART  FROM  CHRISTIANISM.  103 

True  respect  would  treat  God  as  though  at  the  least 
he  is  a  gentlemen.  Christianity  does  not  do  this.  No 
gentleman  would  accept  thanks  for  benefits  he  had 
not  conferred,  nor  would  he  exact  thanks  daily  and 
hourly  for  gifts  he  had  really  made,  nor  have  the  van- 
ity to  covet  perpetual  thanksgivings.  He  who  would 
respect  God,  or  respect  himself,  must  seek  a  faith 
apart  from  such  Christianity. 

A  divine,  who  excelled  in  good  sense,  said  :  "Dan- 
gerous it  were  for  the  feeble  brain  of  man  to  wade  far 
into  the  doings  of  the  Most  High.  Our  soundest  knowl- 
edge is,  to  know  that  we  know  him  not ;  and  our  safest 
eloquence  concerning  Him  is  our  silence ;  therefore  it  be- 
hoveth  our  words  to  be  wary  and  few."^ 

Mrs.  Barbauld  may  have  borrowed  from  Richard 
Hooker  her  fine  line  : 

"  Silence  is  our  least  injurious  praise."' 

An  earnest  Christian,  not  a  religious  man  (for  all 
Christians  are  not  religious),  assuming  the  professional 
familiarity  with  the  mind  of  God,  said  to  me :  "Should 
the  Lord  call  you  to-day,  are  you  prepared  to  meet 
Him  ?"  I  answered  :  Certainly  ;  for  the  service  of  man 
in  some  form  is  seldom  absent  from  my  thoughts,  and 
must  be  consonant  with  his  will.  Were  I  to  pray,  I 
should  pray  God  to  spare  me  from  the  presumption  of 

\ Ecclesiastical  Polity,  book  i.,  §  2- 

X  Charles  Lamb  was  of  this  opinion  when  he  remarked:  "Had  I  to  say 
grace,  I  would  rather  say  it  over  a  good  book  than  over  a  mutton  chop." 
Christians  say  grace  over  an  indigestible  meal.  But  perhaps  they  are  right, 
since  they  need  supernatural  aid  to  assimilate  it. 


104  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

expecting  to  meet  him,  and  from  the  vanity  and  con- 
ceit of  thinking  that  the  God  of  the  universe  will  take 
an  opportunity  of  meeting  me. 

Who  can  have  moral  longing  for  a  religion  which 
represents  God  as  hanging  over  York  Castle  to  receive 
the  soul  of  Dove,  the  debauchee,  who  slowly  poisoned 
his  wife,  and  whose  final  spiritual  progress  was  posted 
day  by  day  on  the  Castle  gates  until  the  hour  of  the 
hangman  came  ?  Dove's  confession  was  as  appalling 
as  instructive.     It  ran  thus  : 

' '  I  know  that  the  Eternal  One, 
Upon  His  throne  divine, 
Gorged  with  the  blood  of  His  own  Son, 
No  longer  thirsts  for  mine. 

Many  a  man  has  passed  his  life 

In  doing  naught  but  good, 
Who  has  not  half  the  confidence  I  have 

In  Jesus  Christ,  His  blood. "  ^ 

By  quoting  these  lines,  which  Burns  might  have  writ- 
ten, the  writer  is  sorry  to  portray,  in  their  naked  form, 
principles  which  so  many  cherish.  But  the  anatomy 
of  creeds  can  no  more  be  explained,  with  the  garments 
of  tradition  and  sentiment  upon  them,  than  a  surgeon 
can  demonstrate  the  structure  of  the  body  with  the 
clothes  on.  Divine  perdition  is  an  ethical  impossi- 
bility. 

Christianism  is  too  often  but  a  sour  influence  on 


IFrom  a  volume  of  verse  privately  circulated  in  Liverpool  at  the  time,  by 
W.  H.  Rathbone. 


APART  FROM  CHRISTIANISM.  105 

life.  It  tolerates  nature,  but  does  not  enjoy  it.  In- 
stead of  giving  men  two  Sundays,  as  it  might, — one 
for  recreation  and  one  for  contemplation, — it  converts 
the  only  day  of  the  poor  into  a  penal  infliction.  It  is 
always  more  or  less  against  art,  parks,  clubs,  sanita- 
tion, equity  to  labor,  freedom,  and  many  other  things. 
If  any  Christians  eventually  accept  these  material 
ideas,  they  mostly  dislike  them.  Art  takes  attention 
from  the  Gospel.  In  parks  many  delight  to  walk, 
when  they  might  be  at  chapel  or  church.  Clubs  teach 
men  toleration,  and  toleration  is  thought  to  beget  in- 
difference. Sanitation  is  a  form  of  blasphemy.  Every 
Christian  sings : — 

' '  Diseases  are  Thy  servants,  Lord ; 
They  come  at  Thy  command." 

But  sanitation  assassinates  these  "servants  of  the 
Lord."  In  every  hospital  they  are  tried,  condemned, 
and  executed  as  the  enemies  of  mankind.  If  labor 
had  justice,  it  would  be  independent,  and  no  longer 
hopeless,  as  the  poor  always  are.  Freedom  renders 
men  defiant  of  subjection,  which  all  priests  are  prone 
to  exercise.  Secularism  has  none  of  this  distrust  and 
fear.  It  elects  to  be  on  the  side  of  human  progress, 
and  takes  that  side,  withstand  it  who  may.  Thus, 
those  who  care  for  the  improvement  of  mankind  must 
act  on  principles  dissociated  from  doctrines  repellent 
to  humanity  and  deterrent  of  ameliorative  enterprise. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


SECULARISM  CREATES  A  NEW  RESPONSIBILITY. 

"  Mankind  is  an  ass,  who  kicks  those  who 
endeavor  to  take  oS  his  panniers." 

— Spanish  Proverb. 

1VT0  ONE  need  go  to  Spain  to  meet  with  animals 
^  ^  who  kick  you  if  you  serve  them.  Spanish  asses 
are  to  be  found  in  every  land.  Could  we  see  the  legs 
of  truth,  we  should  find  them  black  and  blue  with  the 
kicks  received  in  unloosening  the  panniers  of  error, 
strapped  by  priests  on  the  backs  of  the  people.  Even 
philosophers  kick  as  well  as  the  ignorant,  when  new 
ideas  are  brought  before  them.  No  improvement 
would  ever  be  attempted  if  friends  of  truth  were  afraid 
of  the  asses'  hoofs  in  the  air. 

He  who  maintains  that  mankind  can  be  largely 
improved  by  material  means,  imposes  on  himself  the 
responsibility  of  employing  such  means,  and  of  pro- 
moting their  use  as  far  as  he  can,  and  trusting  to  their 
efficacy, — not  being  discouraged  because  he  is  but 
one,  and  mankind  are  many.  No  man  can  read  all 
the  books,  or  do  all  the  work,  of  the  world.  It  is 
enough  that  each  reads  what  he  needs,  and,  in  matter 


A  NEW  RESPONSIBILITY.  107 

of  moral  action,  does  all  he  can.     He  who  does  less, 
fails  in  his  duty  to  himself  and  to  others. 

Christian  doctrine  has  none  of  the  responsibility 
which  Secularism  imposes.  If  there  be  vice  or  rapine, 
oppression  or  murder,  the  purely  Christian  conscience 
is  absolved.  It  is  the  Lord's  world,  and  nothing  could 
occur  unless  he  permitted  it.  If  any  Christian  heart 
is  moved  to  compassion,  it  commonly  exudes  in  prayer. 
He  "  puts  the  matter  before  the  Lord  and  leaves  it  in 
His  hands."  The  Secularist  takes  it  into  his  own. 
What  are  his  hands  for  ?  The  Christian  can  sit  still 
and  see  children  grow  up  with  rickets  in  their  body 
and  rickets  in  their  soul.  He  will  see  them  die  in  a 
foul  atmosphere,  where  no  angel  could  come  to  receive 
their  spirit  without  first  stopping  his  nose  with  his 
handkerchief,  as  I  have  seen  Lord  Palmerston  do  on 
entering  Harrow  on  Speech  Day.  The  Christian  can 
make  money  out  of  unrequited  labor.  When  he  dies, 
he  makes  no  reparation  to  those  who  earned  his 
wealth,  but  leaves  it  to  build  a  church,  as  though  he 
thought  God  was  blind,  not  knowing  (if  Christ  spake 
truly)  that  the  Devil  is  sitting  in  the  fender  in  his 
room,  ready  to  carry  his  soul  up  the  chimney  to  bear 
Dives  company.  Why  should  he  be  anxious  to  miti- 
gate inequality  of  human  condition  ?  It  is  the  Lord's 
will,  or  it  would  not  be.  When  it  was  seen  that  I  was 
ceasing  to  believe  this,  Christians  in  the  church  to 
which  I  belonged  knelt  around  me,  and  prayed  that  I 
might  be  influenced  not  to  go  out  into  the  world  to 


io8  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

see  if  these  things  could  be  improved.  It  was  no  light 
duty  I  imposed  on  myself. 

A  Secularist  is  mindful  of  Carlyle's  saying,  "No 
man  is  a  saint  in  his  sleep."  Indeed,  if  any  one  takes 
upon  himself  the  responsibility  of  bettering  by  reason 
the  state  of  things,  he  will  be  kept  pretty  well  awake 
with  his  understanding. 

Many  persons  think  their  own  superiority  sufficient 
for  mankind,  and  do  not  wish  their  exclusiveness  to 
be  encroached  upon.  Their  plea  is  that  they  distrust 
the  effect  of  setting  the  multitude  free  from  mental 
tyranny,  and  they  distrust  democracy,  which  would 
sooner  or  later  end  political  tyranny. 

These  men  of  dainty  distrust  have  a  crowd  of  imi- 
tators, in  whom  nobody  recognises  any  superiority  to 
justify  their  misgivings  as  to  others.  The  distrust  of 
independence  in  the  hands  of  the  people  arises  mainly 
from  the  dislike  of  the  trouble  it  takes  to  educate  the 
ignorant  in  its  use  and  limit.  The  Secularist  under- 
takes this  trouble  as  far  as  his  means  permit.  As  an 
advocate  of  open  thought  and  the  free  action  of  opin- 
ion, he  counts  the  responsibility  of  trust  in  the  people 
as  a  duty. 

It  will  be  asked.  What  are  the  deterrent  influences 
upon  which  Secularism  relies  for  rendering  vice,  of 
the  major  or  minor  kind,  repellent  ?  It  relies  upon 
making  it  clear  that  in  the  order  of  nature  retribution 
treads  upon  the  heels  of  transgression,  and,  if  tardy 
in  doing  it,  its  steps  should  be  hastened. 


A  NEW  RESPONSIBILITY.  109 

The  mark  of  error  of  life  is — disease.  Science  can 
take  the  body  to  pieces,  and  display  mischief  palpable 
to  the  eyes,  when  the  results  of  vice  startle,  like  an 
apparation,  those  who  discern  that : 

"Their  acts  their  angels  are, — if  good  ;   if  ill, 
Their  fatal  shadows  that  walk  by  them  still." 

A  man  is  not  so  ready  to  break  the  laws  of  nature 
when  he  sees  he  will  break  himself  in  doing  it.  He 
may  not  fear  God,  but  he  fears  fever  and  consumption. 
He  may  have  a  gay  heart,  but  he  will  not  like  the  oc- 
cupation of  being  his  own  sexton  and  digging  his  own 
grave.  When  he  sees  that  death  lurks  in  the  frequent 
glass,  for  instance,  that  spoils  the  flavor  of  the  wine. 
He  takes  less  pride  in  the  beeswing  who  sees  the 
shroud  in  the  bottle.  He  may  hope  that  God  will  for- 
give him,  but  he  knows  that  death  will  not.  He  who 
holds  the  scythe  is  accustomed  to  cut  down  fools, 
whether  they  be  peers  or  sweeps.  Death  knows  the 
fool  at  a  glance.  To  prevent  any  mistake,  Disease 
has  marked  him  with  her  broad  arrow.  The  young 
man  who  once  has  his  eyes  well  open  to  this  state  of 
the  case,  will  be  considerate  as  to  the  quality  of  his 
pleasures,  especially  when  he  knows  that  alluring  but 
unwholesome  pleasure  is  in  the  pay  of  death.  Tem- 
perance advocates  made  more  converts  by  exhibiting 
the  biological  effects  of  alcohol  than  by  all  their  ex- 
hortations. 

The  moral  nature  of  man  is  as  palpable  as  the 
physical  to  those  who  look  for  its  signs.     There  is  a 


HO  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

moral  squint  in  the  judgment,  as  plain  to  be  seen  as 
a  cast  in  the  eyes.  The  voice  is  not  honest ;  it  has 
the  accent  of  a  previous  conviction  in  it.  The  speech 
has  contortions  of  meaning  in  it.  The  sense  is  limp 
and  flaccid,  showing  that  the  mind  is  flabby.  Such  a 
one  has  the  backbone  of  a  fish ;  he  does  not  stand 
upright.  As  the  Americans  say,  he  does  not  "stand 
square"  to  anything.  There  is  no  moral  pulse  in  his 
heart.  If  you  could  take  hold  of  his  soul,  it  would 
feel  like  a  dead  oyster,  and  would  slip  through  your 
fingers.  Everybody  knows  these  people.  You  don't 
consult  them ;  you  don't  trust  them.  You  would 
rather  have  no  business  transactions  with  them.  If 
they  are  in  a  political  movement,  you  know  they  will 
shuffle  when  the  pinch  of  principle  comes. 

Crime  has  its  consequences,  and  criminals,  little 
and  great,  know  it.  When  Alaric  A.  Watts  wrote  of 
the  last  Emperor  of  the  French : — 

"Safe  art  thou,  Louis ! — for  a  time ; 
But  tremble  ! — never  yet  was  crime, 

Beyond  one  little  space,  secure. 
The  coward  and  the  brave  alike 
Can  wait  and  watch,  can  rush  and  strike. 

Which  marks  thee  ?     One  of  them,  be  sure, — " 

few  thought  the  bold  prediction  true;  but  it  came  to 
pass,  and  the  Napoleonic  name  and  race  became  ex- 
tinct, to  the  relief  of  Europe. 

Trouble  comes  from  avowing  unpopular  ideas. 
Diderot  well  saw  this  when  he  said :  **  There  is  less 


A  NEW  RESPONSIBILITY.  iii 

inconvenience  in  being  mad  with  the  mad  than  in  be- 
ing wise  by  oneself."     One  who  regards  truth  as  duty 
will  accept  responsibilities. 
It  is  the  American  idea 

"  To  make  a  man  and  leave  him  be." 

But  we  must  be  sure  we  have  made  him  a  man, — self- 
acting,  guided  by  reasoned  proof,  and  one  who,  as 
Archbishop  Whately  said,  "believes  the  principles  he 
maintains,  and  maintains  them  because  he  believes 
them." 

A  man  is  not  a  man  while  under  superstition,  nor 
is  he  a  man  when  free  from  it,  unless  his  mind  is  built 
on  principles  conducive  and  incentive  to  the  service 
of  man. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


THROUGH  OPPOSITION  TO  RECOGNITION. 

"  So  many  gods,  so  many  creeds — 

So  many  paths  that  wind  and  wind, 
While  just  the  art  of  being  kind 
Is  all  the  sad  world  needs." 

—Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox. 

LADY  HESTER  STANHOPE  said  she  knew 
"Lord  Byron  must  be  a  bad  man,  for  he  was 
always  intending  something. "  Any  improvement  in  the 
method  of  life  is  ''intending  something,"  and  society 
ought  to  be  tolerant  of  those  whose  badness  takes 
no  worse  form.  The  rules  Secularism  prescribes  for 
human  conduct  are  few,  and  no  intelligent  preacher 
would  say  they  inchoate  a  dangerous  form  of  "bad- 
ness. "     They  are  : 

1.  Truth  in  speech. 

2.  Honesty  in  transaction. 

3.  Industry  in  business. 

4.  Equity  in  according  the  gain  among  those  whose 
diligence  and  vigilance  help  to  produce  it. 

"Though  this  world  be  but  a  bubble, 
Two  things  stand  like  stone — 
Kindness  in  another's  trouble, 
Courage  in  your  own." 


THROUGH  OPPOSITION  TO  RECOGNITION.      113 

Learning  and  fortune  do  but  illuminate  these  virtues. 
They  cannot  supersede  them.  The  germs  of  these 
qualities  are  in  every  human  heart.  It  is  only  neces- 
sary that  we  cultivate  them.  Men  are  like  billiard 
balls — they  would  all  go  into  the  right  pockets  in  a 
few  generations,  if  rightly  propelled.  Yet  these  prin- 
ciples, simple  and  unpretending  as  they  are,  being 
founded  on  considerations  apart  from  modes  of  ortho- 
dox thought,  have  had  a  militant  career.  The  Span- 
ish proverb  has  been  in  request :  "Beware  of  an  ox 
before,  of  a  mule  behind,  and  of  a  monk  on  every 
side."  The  monk,  tonsured  and  untonsured,  is  found 
in  every  religion. 

In  Glasgow  I  sometimes  delivered  lectures  on  the 
Sunday  in  a  quaint  old  hall  situated  up  a  wynd  in 
Candleriggs.  On  the  Saturday  night  I  gave  a  woman 
half-a-crown  to  wash  and  whiten  the  stairs  leading  to 
the  hall,  and  the  passage  leading  to  the  street  and 
across  the  causeway,  so  that  the  entrance  to  the  hall 
should  be  clean  and  sweet.  Sermons  were  preached 
in  the  same  hall  when  the  stairs  were  repulsively  dirty. 
The  woman  remarked  to  a  neighbor  that  "Mr.  Holy- 
oake's  views  were  wrang,  but  he  seemed  to  have  clean 
principles."  He  who  believes  in  the  influence  of  ma- 
terial conditions  will  do  what  he  can  to  have  them 
pure,  not  only  where  he  speaks,  but  where  he  frequents 
and  where  he  resides.  The  theological  reader,  who 
by  accident  or  curiosity  looks  over  these  pages,  will 
find  much  from  which  he  will  dissent ;  but  I  hope  he 


114  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

will  be  able  to  regard  this  book  as  one  of  **  clean  prin- 
ciples," as  far  as  the  limited  light  of  the  author  goes. 
Accepting  the  "golden  rule"  of  Huxley — "Give 
unqualified  assent  to  no  propositions  but  those  the 
truth  of  which  is  so  clear  and  distinct  that  they  cannot 
be  doubted  " — causes  the  Secularist  to  credit  less  than 
his  neighbors,  and  that  goes  against  him  ;  being,  as  it 
were,  a  reproach  of  their  avidity  of  belief.  One  reason 
for  writing  this  book  is  to  explain — to  as  many  of  the 
new  generation  as  may  happen  to  read  it — the  dis- 
crimination of  Secularism.  Newspapers  and  the  cler- 
ical class,  who  ought  to  be  well  informed,  continually 
speak  of  mere  free-thinking  as  Secularism.  How  this 
has  been  caused  has  already  been  indicated.  Two  or 
three  remarkable  and  conspicuous  representatives  of 
free  thought,  who  found  iconoclasticism  easier,  less 
responsible,  and  more  popular,  have  given  to  many 
erroneous  impressions.  When  Mr.  Bradlaugh,  Mrs. 
Besant,  and  Mr.  Foote  came  into  the  Secularistic 
movement,  which  preceded  their  day,  they  gave  proof 
that  they  understood  its  principles,  which  they  after- 
wards disregarded  or  postponed.  I  cite  their  opinions 
lest  the  reader  should  think  that  this  book  gives  an 
account  of  a  form  of  thought  not  previously  known. 
One  wrote : 

"  From  very  necessity,  Secularism  is  afiSrmative  and  construc- 
tive ;  it  is  impossible  to  thoroughly  negate  any  falsehood  without 
making  more  or  less  clear  the  opposing  truth.  "^ 

1"  Secularism:  What  Is  It?"     National  Secular  Society's  Tracts— tio.  j . 
By  Charles  Bradlaugh. 


THROUGH  OPPOSITION  TO  RECOGNITION.      115 

Again : 

"Secularism  conflicts  with  theology  in  this  :  that  the  Secular- 
ist teaches  the  improvability  of  humanity  by  human  means ;  while 
the  theologian  not  only  denies  this,  but  rather  teaches  that  the  Sec- 
ular effort  is  blasphemous  and  unavailing  unless  preceded  and  ac- 
companied by  reliance  on  divine  aid."* 

Mrs.  Besant  said : 

' '  Still  we  have  won  a  plot  of  ground — men's  and  women's 
hearts.  To  them  Secularism  has  a  message  ;  to  them  it  brings  a 
rule  of  conduct ;  to  them  it  gives  a  test  of  morality,  and  a  guide 
through  the  difficulties  of  life.  Our  morality  is  tested  only — be  it 
noted — by  utility  in  this  life  and  in  this  world."' 

Mr.  Foote  was  not  less  discerning  and  usefully  ex- 
plicit, saying : 

"Secularism  is  founded  upon  the  distinction  between  the 
things  of  time  and  the  things  of  eternity.  .  .  .  The  good  of  others 
Secularism  declares  to  be  the  law  of  morality  ;  and  although  cer- 
tain theologies  secondarily  teach  the  same  doctrine,  yet  they  differ 
fiom  Secularism  in  founding  it  upon  the  supposed  will  of  God,  thus 
admitting  the  possibility  of  its  being  set  aside  in  obedience  to  some 
other  equally  or  more  imperative  divine  injunction."' 

For  several  years  the  National  Reformer  bore  the 
subtitle  of  "Secular  Advocate." 

We  could  not  expect  early  concurrence  with  the 
policy  of  preferring  ethical  to  theological  questions  of 

1  "  Why  Are  We  Secularists? ' '  National  Secular  Stciety's  Tracts — No.  8. 
By  Charles  Bradlaugh. 

S  "  Secular  Morality."  National  Secular  Society's  Trad* — Ne.  3.  By  Annie 
Besant. 

i  Secularism  and  Its  Misrepresentatian,  by  G.  W.  Foote,  who  subsequently 
succeeded  Mr.  Bradlaugb  as  President  of  the  National  Secular  Society. 


1X6  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

theism  and  unprovable  immortality.  We  accepted 
the  maxim  of  Sir  Philip  Sydney — namely,  that  "  Rea- 
son cannot  show  itself  more  reasonable  than  to  leave 
reasoning  on  things  above  reason."  We  are  not  in  the 
land  of  the  real  yet,  common  sense  is  not  half  so  ro 
mantic  to  the  average  man  as  the  transcendental,  and 
an  atheistical  advocacy  got  the  preference  with  the 
impetuous.  The  Secularistic  proposal  to  consult  the 
instruction  of  an  adversary  proved  less  exciting  than 
his  destruction.  The  patience  and  resource  it  implies 
to  work  by  reason  alone  are  not  to  the  taste  of  those 
to  whom  a  kick  is  easier  than  a  kindness,  and  less 
troublesome  than  explanation.  Those  who  have  the 
refutatory  passion  intense  say  you  must  clear  the 
ground  before  you  can  build  upon  it.  Granted  ;  never- 
theless, the  signs  of  the  times  show  that  a  good  deal 
of  ground  has  been  cleared.  The  instinct  of  progress 
renders  the  minority,  who  reflect,  more  interested  in 
the  builder  than  the  undertaker.  What  would  be 
thought  of  a  general  who  delayed  occupying  a  country 
he  had  conquered  until  he  had  extirpated  all  the  in- 
habitants in  it?  So,  in  the  kingdom  of  error,  he  who 
will  go  on  breaking  images,  without  setting  statues  up 
in  their  place,  will  give  superstition  a  long  life.  The 
savage  man  does  not  desert  his  idols  because  you  call 
them  ugly.  It  is  only  by  slow  degrees,  and  under  the  in- 
fluence of  better-carved  gods,  that  his  taste  is  changed 
and  his  worship  improved.  The  reader  will  see  that 
Secularism  leaves  the  mystery  of  deity  to  the  chartered 


THROUGH  OPPOSITION  TO  RECOGNITION.      117 

imagination  of  man,  and  does  not  attempt  to  close  the 
door  of  the  future,  but  holds  that  the  desert  of  another 
existence  belongs  only  to  those  who  engage  in  the 
service  of  man  in  this  life.  Prof.  F.  W.  Newman 
says  :  **  The  conditions  of  a  future  life  being  unknown, 
there  is  no  imaginable  means  of  benefiting  ourselves 
and  others  in  it,  except  by  aiming  after  present  good- 
ness. "^ 

Men  have  a  right  to  look  beyond  this  world,  but 
not  to  overlook  it.  Men,  if  they  can,  may  connect 
themselves  with  eternity,  but  they  cannot  disconnect 
themselves  from  humanity  without  sacrificing  duty. 
The  purport  of  Secularism  is  not  far  from  the  tenor 
of  the  famous  sermon  by  the  Rev.  James  Caird,  of 
which  the  Queen  said  : 

"He  explained  in  the  most  simple  manner  what  real  religion 
is — not  a  thing  to  drive  us  from  the  world,  not  a  perpetual  moping 
over  '  good  '  books ;  but  being  and  doing  good."' 

This  end  we  reach  not  by  a  theological,  but  by  a 
Secular,  path. 

iProf.  F.  W.  Newman,  who  is  always  clear  beyond  all  scholars,  and  can- 
did beyond  all  theologians,  has  published  a  Palinode  retracting  former  con- 
clusions he  had  published,  and  admitting  the  uncertainty  of  the  evidence  in 
favor  of  after-existence. 

2The  Queen  on  the  Rev.  J.  Caird's  sermon,  Leaves  from  the  Journal  of  Our 
Life  in  the  Highlands. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


SELF-EXTENDING  PRINCIPLES. 

"  Prodigious  actions  may  as  well  be  done 
By  weaver's  issue  as  by  prince's  son." 

— Dry  den. 

SO  FAR  as  Secularism  is  reasonable,  it  must  be 
self- extending  among  all  who  think.  Adherents 
of  that  class  are  slowly  acquired.  Accessions  begin 
in  criticism,  though  that,  as  we  have  seen,  is  apt  to 
stop  there.  In  all  movements  the  most  critical  per- 
sons are  the  least  suggestive  of  improvements.  Con- 
structiveness  only  excites  enthusiasm  in  fertile  minds. 
After  the  Cowper  Street  Discussion  with  the  Rev. 
Brewin  Grant  in  1853,  see  Chapter  X,  page  50,  socie- 
ties, halls,  and  newspapers  adopted  the  Secular  name. 
In  1863  appeared  the  Christian  Reasoner,  edited  by  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Rylance,  a  really  reasoning  clergyman,  whom 
I  afterwards  had  the  pleasure  to  know  in  New  York. 
His  publication  was  intended  to  be  a  substitute  for 
the  Reasoner^  which  I  had  then  edited  for  seventeen 
years.  But  when  the  Reasoner  commenced,  in  1846, 
Christian  believing  was  far  more  thought  of  than 
Christian  reasoning.    One  line  in  Dr.  Rylance's  Chris- 


SELF-EXTENDING  PRINCIPLES.  xig 

tian  Reasoner  was  remarkable,  which  charged  us  with 
"forgetfulness  of  the  necessary  incompleteness  of  Re- 
velation." So  far  from  forgetting  it,  it  was  one  of  the 
grounds  on  which  Secularism  was  founded.  However, 
it  is  to  the  credit  of  Dr.  Rylance  that  he  should  have 
preceded,  by  thirty  years,  the  Bishop  of  Worcester 
in  discerning  the  shortcomings  of  Revelation,  as  cited 
in  Chapter  XIX,  page  loi. 

In  1869  we  obtained  the  first  Act  of  Secular  affir- 
mation, which  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill  said  was  mainly  due  to 
my  exertions,  and  to  my  example  of  never  taking  an 
oath.  In  obtaining  the  Act,  I  had  no  help  from  Mr. 
Bradlaugh,  he  being  an  ostentatious  oath-taker  at 
that  time.  It  was  owing  to  Mr.  G.  W.  Hastings 
(then,  or  afterwards,  M.  P.),  the  founder  of  the  Social 
Science  Association,  that  the  Affirmation  clause  was 
added  to  the  Act  of  1869.  One  of  the  objects  we 
avowed  was  "to  procure  a  law  of  affirmation  for  per- 
sons who  objected  to  take  the  oath.  "^ 

Another  of  our  aims  was  stated  to  be  :  "To  con- 
vert churches  and  chapels  into  temples  of  instruction 
for  the  people  ....  to  solicit  priests  to  be  teachers  of 
useful  knowledge."'  We  strove  to  promote  these 
ends  by  holding  in  honor  all  who  gave  effect  to  such 
human  precepts  as  were  contained  in  Christianity. 
This  fairness  and  justice  has  led  many  to  suppose 

ISectUarism  the  Practical  Philosophy  of  the  People,  p.  la;    1854.     Fifteen 
years  before  the  first  Act  was  passed. 

^Secularism  the  Practical  Philosophy  of  the  People,  by  G.  J.  Holyoake,  p.  la ; 

1854. 


120  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

that  I  accepted  the  theological  as  well  as  the  ethical 
passages  in  the  Scriptures.  But  how  can  a  Christian 
preacher  be  inclined  to  risk  the  suspicion  of  the  nar- 
rower-minded members  of  his  congregation,  if  no  one 
gives  him  credit  for  doing  right  when  he  does  it? 

With  our  limited  means  and  newness  of  doctrine, 
we  could  not  hope  to  rival  an  opulent  hierarchy  and 
occupy  its  temples ;  but  we  knew  that  the  truth,  if  we 
had  it,  and  could  diffuse  it  in  a  reasonable  manner, 
would  make  its  way  and  gradually  change  the  convic- 
tions of  a  theological  caste.  The  very  nature  of  Free- 
thought  makes  it  impossible  for  a  long  time  yet,  that 
we  should  have  many  wealthy  or  well-placed  support- 
ers. Where  the  platform  is  open  to  every  subject 
likely  to  be  of  public  service — subjects  suppressed 
everywhere  else,  and  open  to  the  discussion  of  the 
wise  or  foolish  present  who  may  arise  to  speak,  out- 
rages of  good  taste  will  occur.  Persons  who  forget 
that  abuse  does  not  destroy  use,  and  that  freedom  is 
more  precious  than  propriety,  cease  to  support  a  free- 
speaking  Society.  The  advocacy  of  slave  emancipa- 
tion was  once  an  outrage  in  America.  It  is  now  re- 
garded as  the  glory  of  the  nation.  In  an  eloquent 
passage  it  has  been  pointed  out  what  society  owes  to 
the  unfriended  efforts  of  those  who  established  and 
have  maintained  the  right  of  free  speech. 

"  Theology  of  the  old  stamp,  so  far  from  encouraging  tw  to 
love  nature,  teaches  us  that  it  is  under  a  curse.  It  teaches  us  to 
look  upon  the  animal  creation  with  shuddering  disgust ;  upon  the 


SELF-EXTENDING  PRINCIPLES.  121 

whole  race  of  man,  outside  our  narrow  sect,  as  delivered  over  to 
the  Devil ;  and  upon  the  laws  of  nature  at  large  as  a  temporaury 
mechanism,  in  which  we  have  been  caught,  but  from  which  we 
are  to  anticipate  a  joyful  deliverance.  It  is  science,  not  theology, 
which  has  changed  all  this  ;  it  is  the  atheists,  infidels,  and  ration- 
alists, as  they  are  kindly  called,  who  have  taught  us  to  take  fresh 
interest  in  our  poor  fellow  denizens  of  the  world,  and  not  to  des- 
pise them  because  Almighty  Benevolence  could  not  be  expected  to 
admit  them  to  Heaven.  To  the  same  teaching  we  owe  the  recog- 
nition of  the  noble  aspirations  embodied  in  every  form  of  religion, 
and  the  destruction  of  the  ancient  monopoly  of  divine  influences.  "^ 

Those  who,  in  storm  and  stress,  bring  truth  into 
the  world  may  not  be  able  to  complete  its  triumph, 
but  it  makes  its  own  way,  and  finally  conquers  the 
understanding  of  mankind. 

Priestley,  without  fortune,  with  only  the  slender 
income  of  a  Unitarian  minister,  created  and  kept  up  a 
chemical  laboratory.  There  alone  he  discovered  oxy- 
gen. Few  regarded  him,  few  applauded  him ;  only  a 
few  Parisian  philosophers  thanked  him.  He  had  no 
disciples  to  spread  his  new  truth.  He  was  not  even 
tolerated  in  the  town  which  he  endowed  with  the  fame 
of  his  priceless  discovery.  His  house  was  burnt  by  a 
Church-and-King  mob  ;  his  instruments,  books,  and 
manuscripts  destroyed  ;  and  he  had  to  seek  his  fortune 
in  a  foreign  land. 

Yet  what  has  come  out  of  his  discovery  ?  It  has 
become  part  of  the  civilisation  of  the  world,  and  man- 
kind  owe   more   to   him  than  they  yet  understand. 

1  Leslie  Stephens's  Fretthinking  and  Plain  Speaking. 


122  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

When  a  young  man,  he  forsook  the  Calvinism  in 
which  he  was  reared.  "I  came,"  he  said,  "to  em- 
brace what  is  called  heterodox  views  on  every  ques- 
tion."^ He  cared  for  this  world  as  well  as  for  another, 
and  hence  was  distrusted  by  all  <'true  believers." 
Though  he  had  "spiritual  hopes,"  he  agreed  that  he 
should  be  called  a  materialist. 

We  have  now  had  (1895)  a  London  Reform  Sun- 
day, more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  (one  list  gave 
four  hundred)  preachers  of  all  denominations  taking 
for  their  unprecedented  text,  "The  Duties  and  Re- 
sponsibilities of  Citizenship," — a  thing  the  most  san- 
guine deemed  incredible  when  suggested  by  me  in 
1854.'^  Within  twenty  years  Dr.  Felix  Adler  has 
founded  noble  Ethical  Societies.  Dr.  Stanton  Coit  is 
extending  them  in  Great  Britain.  They  are  Secular- 
ist societies  in  their  nature.  South  Place  Chapel  now 
has  taken  the  name  of  Ethical  Society.  Since  the 
days  of  W.  J.  Fox,  who  first  made  it  famous,  it  has 
been  the  only  successor  in  London  of  the  Moral 
Church  opened  by  Thomas  Holcroft.  Though  mod- 
ern Secular  societies,  to  which  these  pages  relate, 
have  been  anti-theological  mainly,  the  Secular  So- 
ciety of  Leicester  is  a  distinguished  exception.  It  has 
long  had  a  noble  hall  of  its  own,  and  from  the  earliest 
inception  of  Secularism  it  has  been   consistent  and 

1  See  Chambers's  Encycloptedia  {1888) ;  article  :  Priestley. 

2  We  have  now  a  Museum  Sunday.  Even  twenty  years  ago  those  who  ad- 
vocated the  Sunday  opening  of  museums  were  counted  irreverent  and  beyond 
the  pale  of  grace.    Their  opening  is  now  legalised  (1896). 


SELF-EXTENDING  PRINCIPLES.  123 

persistent  in  its  principles.  As  stated  elsewhere,'  the 
"Principles  of  Secularism "  were  submitted  to  John 
Stuart  Mill  in  1854,  and  his  approval  was  of  impor- 
tance in  the  eyes  of  their  advocates.  In  the  first  issue 
of  Chambers's  Encyclopedia  a  special  article  appeared 
upon  these  views,  and  in  the  later  issue  of  that  work 
in  1888  a  new  article  was  written  on  Secularism.  In 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Molesworth's  History  of  England  a  very 
clear  account  was  given  of  the  rise  of  Secularist  opin- 
ions. This  will  be  sufficient  information  for  readers 
unacquainted  with  the  subject. 

The  cause  of  reason  has  had  more  to  confront  than 
the  cause  of  Christianity,  which  has  always  been  on 
the  side  of  power  since  the  days  of  Christ.  The  two 
most  influential  ideas  which,  in  every  age  since  Chris- 
tianity arose,  have  given  it  currency  among  the  ignor- 
ant and  the  credulous,  have  been  the  ideas  of  Hell 
and  prayer.  Hell  has  been  the  terror,  and  prayer  the 
bribe,  which  have  won  the  allegiance  of  the  timid  and 
the  needy.  These  two  master  passions  of  alarm  and 
despair  have  brought  the  unfortunate  portions  of  man- 
kind to  the  foot  of  the  Cross. 

The  cause  of  reason  has  no  advantages  of  this  na- 
ture, and  only  the  intelligent  have  confidence  in  its 
progress.  If  we  have  expected  to  do  more  than  we 
have,  we  are  not  the  only  party  who  have  been  pre- 
maturely sanguine.  The  Rev.  David  Bogue,  preach- 
ing in  Whitfield's  Tabernacle,  Tottenham-Court  Road, 

1  Sixty  Years  of  an  Agitatm't  Life,  Chap.  CX. 


124  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

at  the  foundation  of  the  Foreign  Missionary  Society 
(1790)  of  the  Congregational  denomination,  exclaimed 
amid  almost  unequalled  enthusiasm:  "We  are  called 
together  this  evening  to  the  funeral  of  bigotry."  Judg- 
ing from  what  has  happened  since,  bigotry  was  not 
dead  when  its  funeral  was  prepared,  or  it  was  not  ef- 
fectually buried,  as  it  has  been  seen  much  about  since 
that  day. 

Bigotry,  like  Charles  II.,  takes  an  unconscionable 
time  in  dying.  Down  to  Sir  Charles  Lyell's  days,  so 
harmless  a  study  as  geology  was  distrusted,  and  Lyell, 
like  Priestley,  had  to  seek  auditors  in  America.  While 
he  lectured  at  Boston  to  1,500  persons,  2,000  more 
were  unable  to  obtain  tickets,  which  were  bought  at 
a  guinea  each  extra.  At  our  great  ancient  seat  of 
learning,  Oxford,  Buckland  lectured  on  the  same  in- 
teresting subject  to  an  audience  of  three. 

Secularism  keeps  the  lamp  of  free  thought  burning 
by  aiding  and  honoring  all  who  would  infuse  an  ethi- 
cal passion  into  those  who  lead  the  growing  army  of 
independent  thinkers.  Our  lamp  is  not  yet  a  large 
one,  and  its  supply  of  oil  is  limited  by  Christian  law ; 
but,  like  the  fire  in  the  Temple  of  Montezuma,  we 
keep  it  burning.  In  all  the  centuries  since  the  torch 
of  free  thought  was  first  lighted,  though  often  threat- 
ened, often  assailed,  often  dimned,  it  has  never  been 
extinguished.  We  could  not  hope  to  captivate  society 
by  splendid  edifices,  nor  many  cultivated  advocates ; 
but  truth  of  principle  will  penetrate  where  those  who 


SELF-EXTENDING  PRINCIPLES.  125 

maintain  it  will  never  be  seen  and  never  heard.  The 
day  Cometh  when  other  torches  will  be  lighted  at  the 
obscure  fire,  which,  borne  aloft  by  other  and  stronger 
hands,  will  shed  lasting  illumination  where  otherwise 
darkness  would  permanently  prevail.  As  Elizabeth 
Barrett  Browning  has  said  :  "Truth  is  like  sacramen- 
tal bread, — we  must  pass  it  on." 


SECULARIST  CEREMONIES. 


"  Death  is  the  decisive  test  of  the  value  of 
the  education  and  morality  of  society;  Secular 
funerals  are  the  symbol  of  the  social  renova- 
tion."— J.  P.  Proudhon. 

CERTAIN  ceremonies  are  common  to  all  human  so- 
ciety, and  should  be  consistent  with  the  opinions 
of  those  in  whose  name  the  ceremonies  take  place. 
The  marriage  service  of  the  Church  contains  things 
no  bride  could  hear  without  a  blush,  if  she  understood 
them  ;  and  the  Burial  Service  includes  statements  the 
minister  ought  to  know  to  be  untrue,  and  by  which 
the  sadness  of  death  is  desecrated.  The  Secularist 
naturally  seeks  other  forms  of  speech.  It  being  a 
principle  of  Secularism  to  endeavor  to  replace  what  it 
deems  bad  by  something  better — or  more  consistent 
with  its  profession — the  following  addresses  are  given. 
Other  hands  may  supply  happier  examples ;  but,  in 
the  meantime,  these  which  follow  may  meet  with  the 
needs  of  those  who  have  no  one  at  hand  to  speak  for 
them,  and  are  not  accustomed  to  speak  for  them- 
selves. 


SECULARIST  CEREMONIES.  127 


ON  MARRIAGE. 

Marriage  involves  several  things  of  which  few  per- 
sons think  beforehand,  and  which  it  is  useful  to  call 
their  attention  to  at  this  time.  The  bridegroom,  by 
the  act  of  marriage,  professes  that  he  has  chosen  out 
of  all  the  women  of  the  world,  known  to  him,  the  one 
to  whom  he  will  be  faithful  while  life  shall  last.  He 
declares  the  bride  to  be  his  preference,  and,  whoever 
he  may  see  hereafter,  or  like,  or  love,  the  door  of  as- 
sociation shall  be  shut  upon  them  in  his  heart  for 
ever.  The  bride,  on  her  part,  declares  and  promises 
the  same  things.  The  belief  in  each  other's  perfection 
is  the  most  beautiful  illusion  of  love.  Sometimes  the 
illusion  happily  continues  during  life.  It  may  happen 
—  it  does  happen  sometimes  —  that  each  discovers 
that  the  other  is  not  perfect.  The  Quaker's  advice 
was:  **Open  your  eyes  wide  before  marriage,  but 
shut  them  afterwards."  Those  who  have  neglected 
the  first  part  of  this  counsel  will  still  profit  by  observ- 
ing the  second.  Let  those  who  will  look  about,  and 
put  tormenting  constructions  on  innocent  acts  :  be- 
ware of  jealousy,  which  kills  more  happiness  than  ever 
Love  created. 

The  result  of  marriage  is  usually  offspring,  when 
society  will  have  imposed  upon  it  an  addition  to  its 
number.  It  is  necessary  for  the  credit  of  the  parents, 
as  well  as  for  the  welfare  of  the  children,  that  they 


128  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

should  be  born  healthy,  reared  healthy,  and  be  well 
educated ;  so  that  they  may  be  strong  and  intelligent 
when  the  time  comes  for  them  to  encounter,  for  them- 
selves, the  vicissitudes  of  life.  Those  who  marry  are 
considered  to  foreknow  and  to  foresee  these  duties, 
and  to  pledge  themselves  to  do  the  best  in  their  power 
to  discharge  them. 

In  the  meantime,  and  ever  afterwards,  let  love 
reign  between  you.  And  remember  the  minister  of 
Love  is  deference  towards  each  other.  Ceremonial 
manners  are  conducive  to  affection.  Love  is  not  a 
business,  but  the  permanence  of  love  is  a  business. 

Unless  there  are  good  humor,  patience,  pleasant- 
ness, discretion,  and  forbearance,  lo^'e  will  cease. 
Those  who  expect  perfection  will  lose  happiness.  A 
wise  tolerance  is  the  sunshine  of  love,  and  they  who 
maintain  the  sentiment  will  come  to  count  their  mar- 
riage the  beginning  of  the  brightness  of  life. 

NAMING  CHILDREN. 

In  naming  children  it  is  well  to  avoid  names  whose 
associations  pledge  the  child,  without  its  consent,  to 
some  line  of  action  it  may  have  no  mind  to,  or  capa- 
city for,  when  grown  up.  A  child  called  "Brutus" 
would  be  expected  to  stab  Caesar — and  the  Caesars  are 
always  about.  The  name  "  Washington  "  destroyed 
a  politician  of  promise  who  bore  it.  He  could  never 
live  up  to  it.  A  name  should  be  a  pleasant  mark  to 
be  known  by,  not  a  badge  to  be  borne. 


SECULARIST  CEREMONIES.  129 

In  formally  naming  a  child  it  is  the  parents  alone 
to  whom  useful  words  can  be  addressed. 

Heredity,  which  means  qualities  derived  from  par- 
entage, is  a  prophecy  of  life.  Therefore  let  parents 
render  themselves  as  perfect  in  health,  as  wise  in 
mind,  and  as  self-respecting  in  manners  as  they  can  ; 
for  their  qualities  in  some  degree  will  appear  in  their 
offspring.  One  advantage  of  children  is  that  they  con- 
tribute unconsciously  to  the  education  of  parents.  No 
parents  of  sense  can  fail  to  see  that  children  are  aa 
imitative  as  monkeys,  and  have  better  memories.  Not 
only  do  they  imitate  actions,  but  repeat  forms  of  ex- 
pression, and  will  remember  them  ever  after.  The 
manners  of  parents  become  more  or  less  part  of  the 
manners  and  mind  of  the  child.  Sensible  parents, 
seeing  this,  will  put  a  guard  upon  their  conduct  and 
speech,  so  that  their  example  in  act  and  word  may  be 
a  store-house  of  manners  and  taste  from  which  their 
children  may  draw  wisdom  in  conduct  and  speech. 
The  minds  of  children  are  as  photographic  plates  on 
which  parents  are  always  printing  something  which 
will  be  indelibly  visible  in  future  days.  Therefore 
the  society,  the  surroundings,  the  teachers  of  the  child, 
so  far  as  the  parents  can  control  them,  should  be  well 
chosen,  in  order  that  the  name  borne  by  the  young 
shall  command  respect  when  their  time  comes  to  play 
a  part  in  the  drama  of  life.  To  this  end  a  child  should 
be  taught  to  take  care  what  he  promises,  and  that 
when  he  has  given  his  promise  he  has  to  keep  it,  for 


I30  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

he  whose  word  is  not  to  be  trusted  is  always  suspected, 
and  his  opinion  is  not  sought  by  others,  or  is  disre- 
garded when  uttered.  A  child  should  early  learn  that 
debt  is  dependence,  and  the  habit  of  it  is  the  mean- 
ness of  living  upon  loans.  There  can  be  no  independ- 
ence, no  reliance  upon  the  character  of  any  one,  who 
will  buy  without  the  means  of  payment,  or  who  lives 
beyond  his  income.  Such  persons  intend  to  live  on 
the  income  of  some  one  else,  and  do  it  whether  they 
intend  it  or  not.  He  alone  can  be  independent  who 
trusts  to  himself  for  advancement.  No  one  ought  to 
be  helped  forward  who  does  not  possess  this  quality, 
or  will  not  put  his  hand  to  any  honest  work  open  to 
him.  Beware  of  the  child  who  has  too  much  pride  to 
do  what  he  can  for  his  own  support,  but  has  not  too 
much  pride  to  live  upon  his  parents,  or  upon  friends. 
Such  pride  is  idleness,  or  thoughtlessness,  or  both, 
unless  illness  causes  the  inability. 

Since  offspring  have  to  be  trained  in  health  and 
educated  in  the  understanding,  there  must  not  be  many 
in  the  family  unless  the  parents  have  property.  The 
poor  cannot  afford  to  have  many  children  if  they  in- 
tend to  do  their  duty  by  them.  It  is  immoral  in  the 
rich  to  have  many  because  the  example  is  bad,  and 
because  they  are  sooner  or  later  quartered  upon  the 
people  to  keep  them  ;  or,  if  they  are  provided  for  by 
their  parents,  they  are  under  no  obligation  to  do  an)- 
thing  for  themselves,  which  is  neither  good  for  them 


SECULARIST  CEREMONIES.  131 

nor  good  for  the  community,  to  which  they  contribute 
nothing. 

Believing  this  child  will  be  trained  by  its  parents 
to  be  an  honor  to  them,  and  a  welcome  addition  to  the 
family  of  humanity,  it  is  publicly  named  with  pleasure. 


_.       -  OVER  THE  DEAD. 

I. READING  AT  A  GRAVE. 

Esdras  and  Uriel. 

[An  argument  in  which  the  Prophet  speaks  as  a  Secnlartst.] 

And  the  angel  that  was  sent  unto  me,  whose  name 
was  Uriel,  said  : — I  am  sent  to  show  thee  three  ways, 
and  to  set  forth  three  similitudes  before  thee  :  whereof, 
if  thou  canst  declare  me  one,  I  will  show  thee  also 
the  way  that  thou  desirest  to  see  .... 

And  I  said.  Tell  on,  my  Lord. 

Then  said  he  unto  me,  Go  thy  way  ;  weigh  me  the 
weight  of  the  fire,  or  measure  me  the  blast  of  the  wind, 
or  call  me  again  the  day  that  is  past. 

Then  answered  I  and  said,  What  man  is  able  to 
do  that,  that  thou  shouldest  ask  such  things  of  me  ? 

And  he  said  unto  me.  If  I  should  ask  thee  how 
great  dwellings  are  in  the  midst  of  the  sea,  or  how 
many  springs  are  in  the  beginning  of  the  deep,  or  how 
many  springs  are  above  the  firmament,  or  which  are 
the  outgoings  of  Paradise,  peradventure  thou  wouldst 
say  unto  me,  I  never  went  down  into  the  deep,  nor 


132  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

as  yet  into  Hell,  neither  did  I  ever  climb  up  into 
Heaven. 

Nevertheless,  now  have  I  asked  thee  but  only  of 
the  fire,  and  wind,  and  of  the  day  wherethrough  thou 
hast  passed,  and  of  things  from  which  thou  canst  not 
be  separated,  and  yet  canst  thou  give  me  no  answer 
of  them. 

He  said,  moreover,  unto  me.  Thine  own  things, 
and  such  as  are  grown  up  with  thee,  canst  thou  not 
know  ?  How  should  thy  vessel,  then,  be  able  to  com- 
prehend the  way  of  the  Highest  ?  .  .  .  . 

Then  said  I  unto  him.  It  were  better  that  we  were 
not  at  all  than  that  we  should  live  still  in  wickedness 
and  to  suffer,  and  not  to  know  wherefor. 

He  answered  me  and  said,  I  went  into  a  forest, 
into  a  plain,  and  the  trees  took  counsel,  and  said, 
Come,  let  us  go  and  make  war  against  the  sea,  that  it 
may  depart  away  before  us,  and  that  we  may  make  us 
more  woods. 

The  floods  of  the  sea  also  in  like  manner  took 
counsel,  and  said,  Come,  let  us  go  up  and  subdue  the 
woods  of  the  plain :  that  there  also  we  may  make  us 
another  country. 

The  thought  of  the  wood  was  in  vain,  for  the  fire 
came  and  consumed  it.  The  thought  of  the  floods  of 
the  sea  came  likewise  to  nought,  for  the  sand  stood 
up  and  stopped  them. 

If  thou  wert  judge  now  betwixt  these  two,  whom 


SECULARIST  CEREMONIES.  133 

wouldest  thou  begin  to  justify  ?  or  whom  wouldest 
thou  condemn  ? 

I  answered,  and  said,  Verily  it  is  a  foolish  thought 
that  they  both  have  devised  ;  for  the  ground  is  given 
unto  the  wood,  and  the  sea  also  hath  his  place  to  bear 
his  floods. 

Then  answered  he  me  and  said,  Thou  hast  given  a 
right  judgment ;  but  why  judgest  thou  not  thyself 
also  ?  For  like  as  the  ground  is  given  unto  the  woods, 
and  the  sea  to  his  floods,  even  so  they  that  dwell  upon 
the  earth  may  understand  nothing  but  that  which  is 
upon  the  earth  :  and  he  that  dwelleth  upon  the  heavens 
may  only  understand  the  things  that  are  above  the 
height  of  the  heavens. 

Then  answered  I  and  said,  I  beseech  thee,  O  Lord, 
let  me  have  understanding. 

For  it  was  not  my  mind  to  be  curious  of  the  high  things, 
but  of  such  as  pctss  by  us  daily. 

Harriet  Martineau^s  Hymn.  ^ 

[The  only  hymn  known  to  me  in  which  a  Supreme  Cause  is  implied  with- 
out being  asserted  or  denied,  or  the  reader  committed  to  belief  in  it.] 

Beneath  this  starry  arch 
Nought  resteth  or  is  still, 
'  But  all  things  hold  their  march 

'     ,  As  »/  by  one  great  will : 

'  '       '  Moves  one,  move  all : 

Hark  to  the  footfall  1 
On,  on,  for  ever  I 

1  Which  may  be  sung  where  it  can  be  so  arranged. 


134  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

Yon  sheaves  were  once  but  seed  ; 
Will  ripens  into  deed. 
As  eave-drops  swell  the  streams, 
Day-thoughts  feed  nightly  dreams ; 
And  sorrow  tracketh  wrong, 
As  echo  follows  song, 
On,  on,  for  ever  1 

By  night,  like  stars  on  high, 
The  hours  reveal  their  train ; 
They  whisper  and  go  by  ; 
I  never  watch  in  vain : 
Moves  one,  move  all : 
Hark  to  the  footfall ! 
On,  on,  for  ever  I 

They  pass  the  cradle-head, 
And  there  a  promise  shed  ; 
They  pass  the  moist  new  grave, 
And  bid  bright  verdure  wave  ; 
They  bear  through  every  clime, 
The  harvests  of  all  time, 
On,  on,  for  ever  I 


II. AT  THE  GRAVE  OF  A  CHILD. 

The  death  of  a  child  is  alone  its  parents'  sorrow. 
Too  young  to  know,  too  innocent  to  fear,  its  life  is  a 
smile  and  its  death  a  sleep.  As  the  sun  goes  down 
before  our  eyes,  so  a  mother's  love  vanishes  from  the 
gaze  of  infancy,  and  death,  like  evening,  comes  to  it 
with  quietness,  gentleness,  and  rest.  We  measure  the 


SECULARIST  CEREMONIES.  135 

loss  of  a  child  by  the  grief  we  feel.  When  its  love  is 
gone,  its  promise  over,  and  its  prattle  silent,  its  fate 
excites  the  parents'  tears  ;  but  we  forget  that  infancy, 
like  the  rose,  is  unconscious  of  the  sweetness  it  sheds, 
and  it  parts  without  pain  from  the  pleasure  it  was  too 
young  to  comprehend,  though  engaging  enough  to 
give  to  others.  The  death  of  a  child  is  like  the  death 
of  a  day,  of  which  George  Herbert  sings : 

"  Sweet  day,  so  clear,  so  calm,  so  bright 
Bridal  of  the  earth  and  sky  ; 
The  dew  shall  weep  thy  fall  to-night— 
For  thou  must  die." 

It  is  no  consolation  to  say,  "When  a  child  dies  it 
is  taken  from  the  sorrows  of  life."  Yes  !  it  is  taken 
from  the  sorrows  of  life,  and  from  its  joys  also.  When 
the  young  die  they  are  taken  away  from  the  evil,  and 
from  good  as  well.  What  parents'  love  does  not  in- 
clude the  happiness  of  its  offspring  ?  No  !  we  will 
not  cheat  ourselves.  Death  is  a  real  loss  to  those  who 
mourn,  and  the  world  is  never  the  same  again  to  those 
who  have  wept  by  the  grave  of  a  child.  Argument 
does  not,  in  that  hour,  reach  the  heart.  It  is  human 
to  weep,  and  sympathy  is  the  only  medicine  of  great 
grief.  The  sight  of  the  empty  shoe  in  the  corner  will 
efface  the  most  relevant  logic.  Not  all  the  preaching 
since  Adam  has  made  death  other  than  death.  Yet, 
though  sorrow  cannot  be  checked  at  once  by  reason, 
it  may  be  chastened  by  it.     Wisdom  teaches  that  all 


136  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

human  passions  must  be  subordinate  to  the  higher 
purposes  of  life.  We  must  no  more  abandon  ourselves 
to  grief  than  to  vice.  The  condition  of  life  is  the  lia- 
bility to  vicissitude,  and,  while  it  is  human  to  feel,  it 
is  duty  to  endure.  The  flowers  fade,  and  the  stars  go 
down,  and  youth  and  loveliness  vanish  in  the  eternal 
change.  Though  we  cannot  but  regret  a  vital  loss,  it 
is  wisdom  to  love  all  that  is  good  for  its  own  sake ;  to 
enjoy  its  presence  fully,  but  not  to  build  on  its  con- 
tinuance, doing  what  we  can  to  insure  its  continuance, 
and  bearing  with  fortitude  its  loss  when  it  comes.  If 
the  death  of  infancy  teaches  us  this  lesson,  the  past 
may  be  a  charmed  memory,  with  courage  and  dignity 
in  it. 

III. MEN  OR  WOMEN. 

The  science  of  life  teaches  us  that  while  there  is 
pain  there  is  life.  It  would  seem,  therefore,  that 
death,  with  silent  and  courteous  step,  never  comes 
save  to  the  unconscious.  A  niece  of  Franklm's,  known 
for  her  wit  and  consideration  for  others,  arrived  at  her 
last  hour  at  the  age  of  ninety-eight.  In  her  compo- 
sure a  friend  gently  touched  her.  "Ah,"  murmured 
the  old  lady,  "I  was  dying  so  beautifully  when  you 
brought  me  back  !  But  never  mind,  my  dear ;  I  shall 
try  it  again."  This  bright  resignation,  worthy  of  the 
niece  of  a  philosopher,  is  making  its  way  in  popular 
affection. 


SECULARIST  CEREMONIES.  137 

Lord  Tennyson,  when  death  came  near  to  him, 
wrote : 

"  Sunset  and  evening  star, 
And  one  clear  call  for  me  ! 
And  may  there  be  no  moaning  of  the  bar 
'  '    "  When  I  put  out  to  sea. 

Twilight  and  evening  bell, 

And  after  that  the  dark, 
And  may  there  be  no  sadness  of  farewell 

When  I  embark." 

There  is  just  a  touch  of  superstition  in  these  genial 
lines.  He  writes  :  "After  death  the  dark."  How  did 
he  know  that  ?  What  evidence  is  there  that  the  un- 
known land  is  "dark"?  Why  not  light?  The  un- 
known has  no  determinate  or  ascertained  color. 

Where  we  know  nothing,  neither  priest  nor  poet 
has  any  right  to  speak  as  though  he  had  knowledge. 
Improbability  does  not  imply  impossibility.  That 
which  invests  death  with  romantic  interest  is,  that  it 
may  be  a  venture  on  untried  existence.  If  a  future 
state  be  true,  it  will  befall  those  who  do  not  expect  it 
as  well  as  those  who  do.  Another  world,  if  such  there 
be,  will  come  most  befittingly  and  most  agreeably  to 
those  who  have  qualified  themselves  for  it,  by  having 
made  the  best  use  in  their  power  of  this.  By  best  use 
is  meant  the  service  of  man.  Desert  consists  alone  in 
the  service  of  others.  Kindness  and  cheerfulness  are 
the    two    virtues   which    most    brighten    human   life. 


138  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

Wide-eyed  philanthropy  is  not  merely  money-giving 
goodness,  but  the  wider  kindness  which  aids  the  as- 
cendancy of  the  right  and  minimises  misery  every- 
where. 

Death  teaches,  as  nothing  else  does,  one  useful 
lesson.  Whatever  affection  or  friendship  we  may  have 
shown  to  one  we  have  lost,  Death  brings  to  our  mem- 
ory countless  acts  of  tenderness  which  we  had  neg- 
lected. Conscience  makes  us  sensible  of  these  omis- 
sions now  it  is  too  late  to  repair  them.  But  we  can 
pay  to  the  living  what  we  think  we  owe  to  the  dead  ; 
whereby  we  transmute  the  dead  we  honor  into  bene- 
factors of  those  they  leave  behind.  This  is  a  useful 
form  of  consolation,  of  which  all  survivors  may  avail 
themselves. 

Mrs.  Ernestine  Rose  —  a  brave  advocate  of  un- 
friended right — when  age  and  infirmity  brought  her 
near  to  death,  recalled  the  perils  and  triumphs  in 
which  she  had  shared,  the  slave  she  had  helped  to  set 
free  from  the  bondage  of  ownership,  and  the  slave 
minds  she  had  set  free  from  the  bondage  of  author- 
ity;  she  was  cheered,  and  exclaimed:  "But  I  have 
lived." 

The  day  will  come  when  all  around  this  grave  shall 
meet  death ;  but  it  will  be  a  proud  hour  if,  looking 
back  upon  a  useful  and  generous  past,  we  each  can 
say  :   "I  have  lived.** 


SECULARIST  CEREMONIES.  139 


IV. — ON  A  CAREER  OF  PUBLIC  USEFULNESS. 

In  reasoning  upon  death  no  one  has  surpassed  the 
argument  of  Socrates,  who  said:  "Death  is  one  of 
two  things  :  either  the  dead  may  be  nothing  and  have 
no  feeling — well,  then,  if  there  be  no  feeling,  but  it  be 
like  sleep,  when  the  sleeper  has  no  dream,  surely 
death  would  be  a  marvellous  gain,  for  thus  all  futurity 
appears  to  be  nothing  more  than  one  night.  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  death  be  a  removal  hence  to  another 
place,  and  what  is  said  be  true,  that  all  the  dead  are 
there,  what  greater  blessing  can  there  be  than  this  ?  " 

Sir  Edwin  Arnold,   in  his  Secret  of  Death,  writes  : 

' '  Nay,  but  as  when  one  layetb 
His  worn-out  robes  away, 
And,  taking  new  ones,  sayetb, 
'  These  will  I  wear  to-day  I  * 

So  putteth  by  the  spirit 

Lightly  its  garb  of  flesh, 
And  passeth  to  inherit 

A  residence  afresh." 

This  may  be  true,  and  there  is  no  objection  to  it  if  it 
is.  But  the  pity  is,  nobody  seems  to  be  sure  about  it. 
At  death  we  may  mourn,  but  duty  ceaseth  not.  If  we 
desist  in  endeavors  for  the  right  because  a  combatant 
falls  at  our  side,  no  battle  will  ever  be  won.  "  Life," 
Mazzini  used  to  say,  "  is  a  battle  and  a  march."  Those 
who  serve   others   at  their  own  peril  are  always  in 


I40  ENGLISH  SECULARISM. 

"battle."  Let  us  honor  them  as  they  pass.  Some  of 
them  have  believed  : 

"  Though  love  repine  and  reaison  chafe, 
There  came  a  voice  without  reply — 
'  'Tis  man's  perdition  to  be  safe, 
When  for  the  truth  he  ought  to  die.' " 

They  are  of  those  who,  as  another  poet  has  said,  "are 
not  to  be  mourned,  but  to  be  imitated."^  The  mystery 
of  death  is  no  greater  than  the  mystery  of  life.  All 
that  precedes  our  existence  was  unseen,  unimaginable, 
and  unknown  to  us.  What  may  succeed  in  the  future 
is  unprovable  by  philosopher  or  priest : 

• '  A  flower  above  and  the  mould  below : 
And  this  is  all  that  the  mourners  know."* 

The  ideal  of  life  which  gives  calmness  and  confi- 
dence in  death  is  the  same  in  the  mind  of  the  wise 
Christian  as  in  the  mind  of  the  philosopher.  Sydney 
Smith  says  :  "Add  to  the  power  of  discovering  truth 
the  desire  of  using  it  for  the  promotion  of  human  hap- 
piness, and  you  have  the  great  end  and  object  of  our 
existence.""  Putting  just  intention  into  action,  a  man 
fulfils  the  supreme  duty  of  life,  which  casts  out  all  fear 
of  the  future. 

A  poet  who  thought  to  reconcile  to  their  loss  those 
whose  lines  have  not  fallen  to  them  in  pleasant  places 
wrote : 

1 W.  J.  Linton.        «  Barry  Cornwall.        8  Moral  Philotophy. 


SECULARIST  CEREMONIES.  141 

"A  little  rule,  a  little  sway, 
A  sunbeam  on  a  winter's  day. 
Is  all  the  proud  and  mighty  have 
Between  the  cradle  and  the  grave." 

This  is  not  true ;  the  proud  and  mighty  have  rest  at 
choice,  and  play  at  will.  The  "sunbeam"  is  on  them 
all  their  days.  Between  the  cradle  and  the  grave  is 
the  whole  existence  of  man.  The  splendid  inheritance 
of  the  "proud  and  mighty  "  ought  to  be  shared  by  all 
whose  labor  creates  and  makes  possible  the  good  for- 
tune of  those  who  "toil  not,  neither  do  they  spin"; 
and  whoever  has  sought  to  endow  the  industrious  with 
liberty  and  intelligence,  with  competence  and  leisure, 
we  may  commit  to  the  earth  in  the  sure  and  certain 
hope  that  they  deserve  well,  and  will  fare  well,  in  any 
"land  of  the  leal"  to  which  mankind  may  go. 


INDEX. 


Act,  the,  which  accorded  heresy  a 
State  trial,  8. 

Adams,   Mrs.  Harriet,  imprisoned 
1842,  7- 

Adams,  George,  imprisoned,  7. 

Adier,  Dr.  Felix,  founder  of  Ethical 
Societies,  122. 

Adversaries  of  inquiry,  the  monarch 
and  the  priest,  5. 

American  maxim,  84. 

Archbishop  of  York  regards  Chris- 
tian principles  fatal  to  the  State,  38. 

Archbishop  Whately,  on  primary  es- 
sential of  reasoning,  ro ;  his  thor- 
oughness, 45. 

Arnold,  Sir  Edwin,  on  the  transition 
of  death,  139. 

Atheism  intrinsically  tolerant,  66. 

Aurelius  Antoninus,   his  famous 
quest,  35,  footnote. 

Bailey,  Samuel,  examination  the  jus- 
tifier  of  belief,  12. 

Baines,  Edward,  his  Secular  choice, 
57,  footnote. 

Barker,  Joseph,  51. 

Besant's,  Mrs.  Annie,  description  of 
Secularism,  115. 

Bihar  Proverb,  100. 

Bishop  of  Exeter  confirms  idiots,  40, 
footnote. 

Bishop  of  Manchester,  his  remark- 
able admission,  102. 

Bishop  of  Peterborough,  regards  the 
Secular  as  atheistic,  60;  the  au- 
thor's answer  to,  68. 

Bogue,  Rev.  David,  bis  premature- 
ness,  123. 


Bose,    Pramatha    Nath,   on   Hindu 

thought,  21. 
Bradlaugh,  C,  never  made  atheism 

a  Secular  tenet,  60 ;  his  description 

of  Secularism,  115. 
Bridal  promises,  127. 
Brooke,   Rev.  Stopford  A.,   Secular 

acts  religious,  41. 
Browning,  E.  B.,  truth  to  be  passed 

on,  125. 
Browning,  Robert,  against  a  "  love- 
less God,"  25;  his  wise  prayer,  32, 

33- 
Buchanan,  Robert,  escapes   by  the 

oath,  7. 
Buckland,  deserted  at  Oxford,  124. 
Buckle,   T.  H.,   liberty  an   end,   29, 

footnote. 
Buddha,  saying  of,  74. 
Byron,  Lord,  his  choice  of  company, 

32;  a  "bad  man,"  112. 

Caballero's  maxim  of  tolerance,  18. 
Carlile,   Richard,  first   debate  with 

him,  92. 
Carlyle,  T.,  the  maxim  of  the  monks, 

80,   89;    "No  man  a  saint  in  his 

sleep,"  108. 
Chambers's  Encyclopaedia,  123. 
Charlton,  James,  49. 
Christian  distrust  of  morality,  78. 
Christianity,    three     classes     stand 

apart  from  it,  53. 
Church  sirens,  their  seven  songs,  19, 

20. 
Clean  principles,  113. 
Clifford,  Prof.,  on  the  "  Kingdom  of 

Man,"  59. 


144 


INDEX. 


Coit,  Dr.  Stanton,  ethical   advocate, 

122. 

Coleridge,  S.  D.,  bis  definition  of  a 
reasoner,  36. 

Collings,  Right  Hon.  Jesse,  his  letter 
from  the  Hague,  62. 

Collyer,  Dr.  Robert,  his  advice  to 
propagandists,  90. 

Comte  Augusta,  services  of  his  disci- 
ples, 34. 

Cooper,  J.  R.,  49. 

Cooper,  Thomas,  defender  of  stock 
propositions,  91. 

Cornwall,  Barry,  on  all  we  know,  140. 

Crank,  John,  49. 

Criticism,  seven  things  established 
by  it,  71. 

Critics,  their  universal  error,  84. 

Crosskey,  Rev.  Dr.  Henry,  his  sug- 
gestion, 35,  footnote. 

Dead  band,  the,  27. 

Death,  discerning  sympathy  the  chief 

consolation,  135 ;  sometimes  a  duty, 

140. 
Debatable  ground  of  theology,  88. 
Democracy  connotes  deference,  15. 
De  Stagl,  Madame,  her  saying,  34. 
Diderot's  perspicacity,  no. 
Diseases  divine,  105. 
Disputants    should    be    equally 

matched,  90. 
Disraeli,  B.,  objects  to  Board-school 

preachers,  64. 
Dryden.  John,  his  democratic  lines, 

118. 
Duty  defined,  74. 

Eclecticism,  not  permitted  by  Chris- 
tians, 3. 

Ellicot,  Bishop,  his  admission,  76. 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  his  noble  choice,  18. 

Expanding  the  letter,  26. 

Eyton,  Canon,  distrusts  Providence, 
102. 

Farrar,  Dean,  distrusts  the  Thirty- 
nine  Articles,  102. 

Finlay,  Thomas,  imprisoned,  7. 

Fleet  Street  House  commeuced  1852, 
51- 


Foote,  G.  W.,  his  description  of  Sec- 
ularism, 115. 

Foreign  affairs  of  theology,  86. 

Forster,  W.  E.,  letter  to  him,  61 ;  his 
injurious  insistance,  65  ;  creates  a 
new  sacerdotal  caste,  64. 

Fox,  W.  J.,  defines  education,  61;  the 
market  and  the  Church,  85,  122. 

Franklin's  niece,  136. 

Free  mind,  its  quality  and  security, 
13- 

Free  thought,  the  field  in  1842,  7;  de- 
fined, 10;  its  three   conditions,  11. 

Froude,  J.  A.,  his  life  of  Saint  Belle- 
tin,  94. 

Garibaldi,  his  question  to  Mazzini, 
80. 

Garrison,  L.,  frees  the  slave  without 
Christian  aid,  82. 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  his  defence  of  dis- 
cussion, 12 ;  in  favor  of  Secular  in- 
struction, 62. 

Goethe,  his  secret  of  genius,  22 ;  his 
Coptic  song,  30 ;  his  warning  say- 
ing, 95- 

Graham,  Sir  James,  confers  legal  ad- 
vantages on  heresy,  8. 

Grant,  Rev.  Brewin,  B.  A.,  50. 

Greenwood,  Abraham,  49. 

Greg,  Rathbone,  his  five  laws  of  life, 

85. 
Grote,  George,  on  the  resentment  of 
the  priest,  31. 

Hastings,  G.  W.,  his  services  to  Sec- 
ular a£Brmation,  119. 

Herbert,  George,  on  the  death  of  a 
day,  135. 

Hey,  Canon,  91. 

Hibbert,  Julian,  regarded  criticism 
as  self-defence,  19. 

Holcroft,  Thomas,  his  moral  Church, 
122. 

Holmes,  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell,  his  re- 
ply to  Christ,  98. 

Hooker,  Richard,  his  wise  warning, 
103. 

Hutton,  R.  H.,  his  distrust  of  moral- 
ity, 78. 

Huxley,  T.  H.,  makes  a  new  thof- 


INDEX. 


MS 


oughfare,  19;  defines  God's  justice, 
25 ;  his  definition  of  agnosticism, 
36,  footnote;  bis  golden  rule,  114. 

Infidelity,  a  term  intentionally  offen- 
sive, 54. 

Ingersoll,  Colonel  R.  G.,  orator  of 
free  thought,  43,  footnote. 

Instruction  confused  with  education, 
61. 

Jones,  Lloyd,  escapes  by  the  oath,  7. 

Karr,  Alphonse,  his  prediction,  i. 
Kneller,  Sir  Godfrey,  his  confession, 
39- 

Lamb,  Charles,  his  taste  in  grace, 

103,  footnote. 
Langford,  Dr.  J.  A.,  52. 
Le  Blond,  Robert,  51. 
Leicester  Secular  Society,  122. 
Linton,  W.  J.,  his  heroic  saying,  140. 
Lyell,  Sir  C,  his  geology  exiled,  124. 

Marriage,  new  ceremony  of,  127,  128. 
Martineau,  Dr.  James,  a  fine  sentence 

from,  42. 
Martineau,    H.,   defends    the    term 

"  Secularism,"  35 ;  her  hymn  of  the 

grave,  133,  134. 
Martyr,  Justin,  his  servile  prudence, 

76. 
Maxim,  of  free  thought,  9;  of  the  sea, 

56. 
Mazzini  forbidden  to  think,  9;   his 

absolute  Theism,  81 ;  his  letter  to 

the  author,  81;  a  heretic  himself,  82. 
Mendicancy  of  prayer,  102. 
Mill,  J.  S.,  his  definition  of  religion, 

80;  bis  testimony,  119;  approves  of 

the  principles  of  Secularism,  54, 

123. 
Milton,  63;  his  "  free  and  open  field  " 

deficient,  90. 
Molesworth,  Rev.  Dr.,  his  historical 

account  of  Secularism,  123. 
Montezuma,  the  fire  in  his  temple, 

124. 
Moral  nature  palpable  as  the  physi- 
cal, 109. 


Morley,  Samuel,  his  honorablencss, 

91. 
Morley,    John,    holds    independent 

thinking  to  be  conceded,  z. 
Motherwell,  James,  49. 
Murderers  thrust  on  God,  104. 

Naming  children,  suggestions  there- 
on, 128,  129. 

Napoleon  III.,  34. 

''New  range  of  view"  misleading, 
27- 

Newman,  Cardinal,  on  destruction 
by  replacement,  71. 

Newman,  F.W.,  morals,  not  religion, 
the  basis  of  union,  76,  77;  present 
goodness  the  chief  aim,  117. 

Newton,  John,  on  ignorant  zeal,  28. 

Nicholls,  Charles  Frederick,  47. 

Nicol,  Professor,  wild  ideas  better 
than  none,  17. 

Oddfellows'  Prize  Lectures,  the  prin- 
ciple on  which  they  were  written, 
46. 

Open  thought,  its  three  stages,  2,  3. 

Owen,  Robert,  45. 

Paine,  Thomas,  greater  than  any 
priest,  82. 

Palmerston,  Lord,  at  Harrow  Speech 
Day,  107. 

Parents,  obligations  of,  129. 

Parker,  Rev.  Dr.  J.,  gives  an  onder- 
taking,  53;  his  Critique  0/ the  Secu- 
larist Theory,  54,  footnote ;  declares 
Secular  education  not  atheistic,  60: 
his  motto,  63,  64. 

Parker,  Theodore,  the  "Jupiter  of 
the  pulpit,"  41. 

Partridge  and  Oakley,  50. 

Patersou,  Thomas,  imprisoned,  7. 

Pearson,  Rev.  T.,  fate  of  bis  Prize 
Essay,  54. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  bis  description  of 
Theodore  Parker,  41. 

Place,  Joseph,  49. 

Policy  in  practice,  98. 

Pratt,  Hodgson,  on  Mazzoleni's  bur- 
ial, 61. 

Priestley,  Dr.,  a  materialist,  I2Z. 


146 


INDEX. 


Principle  in  the  young,  130. 
Proudhon,  P.  J.,  regards  Secular  fu- 
nerals as  symbols,  126. 
Putnam,  Samuel  Porter,  43,  footnote. 

Quarles,  Francis,  on  wise   worldli- 

ness,  38. 
Queen,  the,  on  Rev.  James  Caird's 

Secular  sermon,  117. 

Rathbone,  W.  H.,  the  murderer  be- 
fore the  philosopher,  104,  footnote. 

Reading,  its  limits,  106. 

Restitution  to  the  dead,  138. 

Right  defined,  74. 

Roalfe,  Matilda,  imprisoned  in  Scot- 
land, 7. 

Robinson,  Canon,  gi. 

Roebuck,  John  Arthur,  always  vindi- 
cated free  speech,  8. 

Rose,  Mrs.  Ernestine,  her  last  words, 
138. 

Rutherford,  Dr.  J.  H.,  51. 

Rylance,  Rev.  Dr.,  his  Christian  Rea- 
soner,  118,  iig. 

Samson,  his  famous  engagement  at 
Ramath-Lehi,  95. 

Secular,  the,  distinct  from  Secular- 
ism, 56;  instruction  neutral,  57. 

Secularism  defined,  8;  individuality 
in  piety,  62;  its  three  principles, 
38,  39,  40;  its  origin,  45,  46,  47;  not 
atheism,  60 ;  seven  errors  it  re- 
places, 71;  its  moral  path,  76;  its 
aim,  73;  the  revolt  of  the  moral 
sense,  92. 

Secularist  tenets  provable,  84 ;  piety, 
88,  89;  maxim  of  controversy,  90; 
accepts  Christian  morality,  100; 
four  rules  of  conduct,  112. 

Self-determined  thought,  21. 

Sidney,  Algernon,  his  legacy,  12. 

Smith,  Sydney,  on  end  and  object  of 
existence,  140. 

Social  Truth,  its  three  marks,  75. 

Socrates,  his  argument  on  death,  139. 

Sophistry  on  death,  141. 

South  Place  Chapel,  12a. 


Southey's  self-complacent  letter,  31. 
Southwell,    Charles,    in    prison    at 

Bristol,  7. 
Spanish  proverb,  106. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  varied  iteration  a 

necessity,  18,  50. 
Spirit,  an  evasive  refuge,  26. 
Spurgeon,  C.  H.,  in  favor  of  Secular 

instruction,  65. 
Stanhope,  Lady  Hester,  "she  knew," 

112. 
Stanley,  Dean,  how  he  perished,  102. 
Stanley,  H.  M.,  22. 
Stephen,  Leslie,  his  testimony,  120, 

121. 

Superfine  distrust,  108. 
Sydney,  Sir  Philip,  on  reasonable- 
ness, 116. 
Syracusan,  the  school  of,  bondage, 


Taylor,  Sir  Henry,  31. 

Tennyson,  Lord,  his  cheerful  re- 
quest, 137. 

Thinker,  the,  a  disturber,  17. 

Townley,  Rev.  Henry,  his  compro- 
mising pertinacity,  91. 

Travis,  Dr.  Henry,  49. 

Tyndall,  Professor,  his  noble  choice, 
18. 

Uriel's    Secularist    argument    with 

Esdras,  131. 
Uttley,  Dr.  Hiram,  49. 

Voltaire,  who  withstood  the  priests 
of  his  day,  82. 

Watts,  Alaric  A.,  his  warning  to  Na- 
poleon HL,  no. 

Westminster  Gazette,  i8. 

Wheeler,  J.  M.,  43,  footnote. 

When  a  man  is  not  a  man,  11. 

Wilcox,  Ella  W.,  on  the  want  of  the 
world,  112. 

Worcester,  Bishop  of,  his  candid 
admission,  loi. 

Workingman,  bis  four  State  duties, 
67,  63. 


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